Grand Clockwork Nightingale
by Chiwizard
Summary: A being of great heritage and a boy of strange destiny meet, bound together by strange fate. Now they must save the world from a forgotten and ancient evil...AU
1. Yet to return, the shadowed one

Hello, hello! Welcome, welcome, welcome!

So glad you could come, so glad...now, I'll admit that this fic (which I've been working on for - gah - how many years by now?) is my little pride and joy. I've worked very, VERY hard on it.

If you want to see it in it's previous, much messier configuration, the old link is still up. If you're curious, you could check it out...but THIS is the fic as I mean to display it.

Please enjoy!

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Frantically, he flew through the night sky, wide gossamer wings cutting powerful strokes through the chill air and hazy cloudbanks.

'There has to be a way out, there _has_ to be,' he thought as he strained the beautiful appendages to their limits.

He was a lot lower than he would have preferred - just a thin layer of vapor concealed him from the expanse of light marking the human city below. But they would expect him to fly high, and so he flew had to stay low.

The breeze was against him tonight, and it kept blowing his golden bangs into his eyes. The rest of his wild black-and-red hair was managing to behave itself for once. Actually, if not for his wings, Yami was quite mistakable for a human...

He shook the bangs out of face again and tried to flap harder.

The demon swarm that was after him wouldn't rest until their mission was completed, or until they were all dead. And they were resourceful to boot; a braying noise from his left revealed the location of a tracker demon, one who had just spotted him.

Instantly he wheeled and climbed, going straight up while the rust-red demon brayed, calling the rest of the swarm to that location. He had barely broken to clear air before he was surrounded by looming forms in leathery skin and snarling jaws; the rest of the swarm's monstrous demons.

As one they swooped towards him, and the ones that succeeded in seizing hold of him used their scaly claws to clutch at his arms and pin his wings. The sound of more of the bat-like wings heralded the approach of their commander, a she-demon he knew FAR too well.

"And what do we have here?" cackled the she-demon.

"A Ban-Ile? And not just any old Ban-Ile, but the very one we've been searching for all this time! Our dear little friend Yami."

The she-demon was practically purring. The sound made bile start to rise in Yami's throat.

"A most generous prize has been offered to the swarm that brings you in. I wonder, you think we would receive extra if we inflicted some bodily harm?"

The other demons laughed at the joke. Infuriated, Yami could contain himself no longer. His strange violet eyes flashed with rage as he thrashed about, struggling to free himself from the demons that held him in place.

"Damn you - _traitor!_"

On the last word Yami succeeded in freeing one wing. He flapped it as hard as he could, landing blows across many of the demons' faces. The demons screeched with pain, flapping hard to try and get some distance between them and this newest source of pain; as delicate as those wings might be, even a single feather from a Ban-Ile was harder than a diamond and cut skin like glass.

Yami's other wing was free soon enough, and the closest remaining demons wisely flew off.

This lull didn't last long. Only a few seconds later, the demon swarm regained its nerve - with the she-demon screeching at their tails - and charged forward, claws and fangs bared. Yami knew, even as he struggled, that he didn't have a chance.

The only reason for his escape, and his survival, was that in their rage the demons began squabbling amongst themselves. Lashing out at each other, in their haste the ones that had seized Yami in the fighting accidentally forgot about him, and let go.

0

0

Yuugi Motou wasn't really what you'd call an ordinary child. He did have some friends and lived with his family, which was much like what other children did.

However, when all those other children were off roughhousing with each other and running around, Yuugi could reliably be found elsewhere, letting his mind wander. Usually, Yuugi would spend that time staring up into the sky, at a cloud or some bird that had caught his attention.

When asked, Yuugi had many perfectly logical reasons behind his not participating in intense physical activity - his smaller-than-average stature, for starters. Those reasons were never his real reasons, but they were enough to placate the curious.

Whatever reason he really did have, looking up into the night sky that night might have been a random chance. However, where Fate is involved there is no such thing as mere Chance. And so as Fate would have it, Yuugi Motou was looking up at the night sky when a small silvery something dropped from the bottom of a cloudbank.

Yuugi blinked at the sight, squinting to try and get a better look. It seemed like some sort of weird bird to him.

Fate also employed Curiosity in its plans; that was why Yuugi went outside to investigate. The strange winged silver thing, Yuugi soon discovered, had crash-landed in a nearby park. If it was a bird or something, crashing like that meant it was probably hurt...this in mind, Yuugi went as fast as his admittedly stunted little legs could take him, only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight he had found.

It wasn't a bird at all. It looked like a person..but people didn't have _wings_...

Yuugi could remember the stories his mother had told him years ago, before she was gone. Some of them had been about people that had great wings and lived amongst the clouds, and were called 'angels' by the humans that saw them.

Well, if this was an angel, it was one that had really been through the meat grinder.

The human body part was bruised and broken, the pale silvery-gray robes it was wearing were ripped and bloody evidence of it. Its wings, however...that made Yuugi pause. One was spread wide open, and though it looked a little bit squished it seemed to be otherwise okay. The other wing was a total mess, crumpled and almost twisted all the way around. Even worse, it was partially stuck underneath the angel-person's own body. It was leaking some liquid that might have been blood - Yuugi wasn't certain, the stuff was as clear as glass.

Yuugi shook his head to dispel some of his shock and wonder - there was no point to just staring at it, he couldn't just leave it here!

He tried pulling the nearly destroyed wing out from underneath the body, only to yank his hand away as quickly as he had put it down. Yuugi stuck a sliced-up finger into his mouth with a wince - those feathers were so sharp! Like shards of broken glass, or something.

Going much more slowly and trying his best to keep from slicing himself up any further, Yuugi finally managed to free the wing that was being crushed.

It was another of Fate's tricks, more commonly known as Coincidence, that kept any creature from seeing Yuugi carrying the other one home on his back.

Grandpa wasn't back yet when Yuugi got home; thankful of avoiding a confusing explanation Yuugi quickly hauled the angel-person - he wasn't sure what else to call him - up the stairs to his room.

Yuugi's room was really more of a loft consisting of the entire top floor, so there was plenty of room for another person. Yuugi laid the angel-person out on a spare mat as gently as possible, trying to think of what he should do now.

The first aid kit came to mind, and Yuugi scampered downstairs to retrieve it. When Yuugi opened it to see if there would be enough supplies in there, he remembered his finger was still bleeding a little and got himself a band-aid for it.

Once that was done, and Yuugi had brought the kit back upstairs, the angel-person occupying his bed regained consciousness. He - for it was most definitely a 'he' - moaned softly first. Then his eyes shot wide open and he tried to get up. Discovering the hard way how that wasn't an option right now he settled for crouching instead, staring at his surroundings with all the intent of a wounded animal. His eyes went a little wider as he caught sight of Yuugi.

"Where am I? Who are you?" he demanded.

Feeling confused, Yuugi spent a moment just looking back, wondering what he should do. Then, with very hesitant motions, Yuugi responded in the only way he could - a series of gestures his nimble hands easily performed.

Yuugi sighed as he was mutely blinked at. Just as he had thought, the strange injured angel-person didn't understand it at all.

Frustrated but undaunted, Yuugi grabbed a pencil and a pad of paper. Hoping that this strange person could read at least, the mute teen quickly wrote his words out, before sliding the pad and pencil both across the floor. The pad stopped a short ways out of arm's reach, but the angel-person's intact wing extended and drew it closer, feather tips lightly scratching the floor.

0

0

Yami felt his confusion compounding as he read the words.

They said 'You're in my room. I'm the person that found you. Who are you?'

Letting his eyes linger over the words as if he was still reading, Yami pondered the situation he had inexplicably entered. Sensing the unusually intense stare of the human boy on him, Yami decided to humor the boy and reached for the paper. Briefly examining the pencil, Yami wrote his reply underneath the boy's question, before pushing the things back over.

'I don't give out my name to people I don't know that I can trust. Why couldn't you just ask normally?'

Yami could have sworn that an almost bitter look had entered the other's eyes as the boy wrote another message and shoved the paper over.

'I do. My name is Yuugi.'

Underneath it was a shorter scribble that read, 'Figure the rest out yourself.'

While Yami tried to make some sort of sense out of this, a human voice called up from below.

"Yuugi, I'm back!"

'Yuugi' eagerly turned and went down the stairs. Now that he was alone, Yami tried to get up, only to annoyingly discover that he still couldn't. The Ban-Ile had to settle for pulling his deadweight over to get a look down the stairwell.

What Yami saw occur down there baffled him at first. There with Yuugi. He was standing before a little old human man.

"So, how was business while I was out?"

A brief hesitation, and then the younger human made another series of those odd hand motions.

"Not much, eh?"

The old human chuckled a bit.

"Guess my grandson's getting bored with minding the store while your Grampa's away!"

Yuugi laughed a bit too, though it was either utterly silent or too quiet for Yami to hear, then made a few more of the hand motions.

"I see," said the old man after looking at them.

Yami blinked as the obvious hit him. The Ban-Ile dragged himself back to the padded mat he'd woken up on and pondered over his circumstances as the one-sided-sounded conversation continued through various subjects. Eventually, that conversation ended and Yuugi came back up the stairs. Yami wasted no time in confirming his discovery.

"You can't speak at all, can you?" Yami inquired.

Yuugi paused mid-step, then nodded. The human boy wouldn't turn to meet his gaze, instead going to rummage in a dresser for something. Yami sighed, scribbled another note on the paper, tore that section off, wadded it up, and threw it in the general direction of Yuugi's head.

That task completed, Yami tried to find a position that didn't set off more pain in his aching and abused frame. Exhaustion from the prolonged chase finally catching up to him, the Ban-Ile's slid shut.

Yuugi blinked as a wadded piece of paper hit him in the head. Picking it up, Yuugi unfolded it out of curiosity. His eyes went wide as he read the single line that had been written there.

Turning to look at the angel-person, Yuugi was surprised to see that the guy was curled up, clearly going for some obviously much-needed rest. Something like a smile crossed his features as Yuugi looked at that line again. It was only four words long.

'My name is Yami.'

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	2. Who quests for the Twilight Dragon

Thank for your reviews! All...two of you who were nice enough to leave me a notice that you read my story.

As for the other people who put me in their favorites or added me to their alerts, without reviewing...thank you for that too, I guess. Even if it is slightly depressing to see automatic notices of you doing that, and then not getting a review from you. Feedback is the air I breathe and the water I swim in.

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

"YOU _LOST_ HIM!"

The angry shriek echoed off the walls, raising it to near-deafening proportions.

"YOU HAD HIM IN YOUR CLAWS AND YOU _LOST_ HIM!"

"My Lady - please, I beg forgiveness -"

"BE SILENT!"

The she-demon's words devolved to a whimper as she kneeled before her swarm's Lady. Every swarm had a Lady - how else would there be any spawn? The Ladys ruled their swarms with iron-clawed grips. The she-demon was the only one of the swarm who had not been spawned by this Lady. Naturally, this caused the Lady to hate and despise her, even if she did put her in command.

Now, the serpentine beast glared long and hard at the prostate she-demon, all the while thinking.

"You have received another chance," was all she said before flapping her bat-wings and vanishing into the darkness. The she-demon hid all traces of her relief as she left to send out the trackers; that Ban-Ile wouldn't get far...

0

0

Yami had always slept lightly. The instant Yuugi moved in his direction the next morning he woke up, though Yami chose to stay still at first, letting his other senses determine his situation. It felt like a bright day out, and there didn't seem to be any immediate threats here...

That settled, Yami chose to open his eyes. In doing so, he accidentally startled Yuugi, who had been bent over him, trying to determine whether or not Yami was still asleep. Apparently done automatically, the boy's hands twisted, moving to form a sign.

"Much better, thank you," Yami replied.

He let a hint of amusement cross his features at the comical expression that appeared on Yuugi's face - clearly the boy had not expected Yami to understand him, for obvious reasons.

(**How how yesterday you didn't understand this**)

"Call me a quick learner," Yami replied.

Yuugi thought about this, then shrugged.

(**Fine fine. Doesn't really matter right now. You need a doctor Yami**)

A twinge made Yami wince as he remembered. "I had noticed that," Yami agreed wryly.

Of course, going to see a proper healer was rather impossible at the moment... Much to Yami's surprise, Yuugi moved to sit on the floor beside him. The mute boy was holding onto a small white box.

(**I can help a little**) Yuugi signed, (**Can I**)

Yami blinked at this strangely straightforward kindness, but chose to let Yuugi help bandage him up without protest. There wasn't too much that really required bandages, until they came to Yami's wings.

(**Sorry. Never fixed wings before. Don't know how**)

Waving Yuugi's apologies off - as if that could ever have been expected! - Yami examined his wings himself. The right one was fine; naturally it was sore from overwork, but it was otherwise undamaged. Yami's left wing looked like a shredded mess. It was still dripping a little clear fluid as well. Yami sighed to himself, took careful hold of the thing and gave it a solid yank, straightening the joint. When he took his hands away, the Ban-Ile was pleased to see that the fluid had hardened into a natural cast.

When he turned to look at his silent companion, Yami saw that Yuugi was staring at him in flat astonishment.

(**Wing did not hurt you**)

When Yami looked at him in confusion over the statement, Yuugi elaborated.

(**When I found you it cut me**)

Yuugi showed him the finger with the bandage.

"Ah, they do tend to do that," Yami replied, "It's a natural defense of my species."

(**Species? What species is that**)

Yami paused. Had they gotten to that already? Granted, it was an innocent enough question, but this wasn't something that should be discussed here. Even though Yami knew it would be improper not to tell Yuugi the truth, the boy had a right to know since he was the one sheltering him...

Yuugi gave the other a look when he wasn't being answered. It hadn't seemed like such a bad thing to ask about...

(**I want to know. What's wrong with that**)

"Telling you would put your life in serious danger," Yami replied in a quiet voice.

Yuugi frowned at Yami.

(**Don't care**)

And then, realizing something, Yuugi added (**I'd already be in danger from helping you anyway I bet**)

"True enough," Yami sighed, "Very well, Yuugi. If you really must know..."

0

0

Yuugi waited patiently, while Yami collected his thoughts. Then the other nodded to himself and began explaining.

"I am one of the last of a race of beings that you humans have called 'Angels'."

(**If not angels then what are you called**)

"We call ourselves the 'Ban-Ile'."

Yuugi did a quick bit of finger spelling, trying to figure out this new word. Once he was sure he had it down pat, Yuugi signed (**Why are you one of last ones Yami**)

"Our numbers were starting to decline in any case," Yami said as his gaze settled on nothing in particular, "But then He felt the need to 'help' us along."

Yuugi frowned; that sounded vaguely ominous.

(**Who is He**)

Yuugi wasn't answered right away, because Yami was turned away and couldn't see Yuugi's hands move. Yuugi tapped on Yami's shoulder, making the Ban-Ile blink and turn back to face him, before repeating his question.

"Something I hope you never have the misfortune to meet," Yami replied with a sigh.

After that, no matter how much Yuugi prodded, Yami refused to say anything else. Well, it was a personal subject, wasn't it? And the conversation was soon entirely derailed when Grandpa called up the stairs. Yuugi gave Yami a sidelong glance as he went down, wondering how he might get the Ban-Ile to open up again, but he forgot all about his questions when he saw why Grandpa wanted him downstairs.

The elderly man was dressed to travel, a large suitcase sitting at his side.

"I know this is rather sudden, Yuugi, but something's come up. I'm going to have to be out of town for a while."

(**What thing**) Yuugi asked

"Early this morning, I got a call from a friend of mine that's been out on a dig. It was Mr. Hawkins - he came and visited us once, a few years ago. Do you remember him?"

After a moment's thought, Yuugi nodded. Yes, he did remember Grandpa's friend.

"Well, he called and asked if I could come out to the site. Arthur thinks he's stumbled onto something pretty big, and...eh heh heh..."

Grandpa scratched behind his head in embarrassment, and Yuugi understood. If there was a thing that Yuugi and his Grandpa shared, it was a passion for going out and discovering things. Grandpa especially liked to discover old things - before opening up their little shop, Grandpa had been a semi-professional archeologist. Arthur Hawkins, one of Grandpa's best friends, was a certified archeologist, who often invited Grandpa along when he went out on digs.

(**How long will you be gone**) Yuugi asked.

"Oh, I'd imagine only a month at most. Think you can handle things while I'm gone, Yuugi?"

Eagerly, Yuugi nodded. Normally, he would want to come along with Grandpa on one of these trips - Yuugi wanted to see the world - but in a way this was a big relief. Yuugi had been wracking his brains for hours about how to explain Yami to Grandpa.

"Now, my plane will be leaving soon, so I'm off to the airport. Now remember Yuugi - no staying up all night, and especially none of those wild teenage parties. I'd like to come back to a house that _hasn't_ burned down yet. Alright?"

Yuugi smiled while Grandpa grinned. Yuugi would never throw any sort of wild party while his Grandpa was out of town, but Grandpa liked to tease him anyway.

(**Yes of course sure. Don't forget to have fun Grandpa**) Yuugi signed, rolling his eyes.

"And don't you forget, you've got school to get to tomorrow!" Grandpa admonished him.

Once Grandpa had left, Yuugi sighed as he went back upstairs. Even though he had good reason not to go with Grandpa, Yuugi still wanted to travel. Oh well, one day he would get his wish...maybe...

"What was that about?"

Yuugi jumped. In all his pondering, he'd managed to forget about Yami's presence completely. The Ban-Ile was curled up on the spare futon again, watching him with evident curiosity.

(**Thank you for the heart attack**) Yuugi signed irritably.

Yami actually smirked a little bit, obviously amused at Yuugi being flustered.

(**That was Grandpa. He's left for a trip and won't be back for a month**) Yuugi added.

Yami seemed to nod to himself. Yuugi's gazed flickered over to the clock. It was getting kind of late in the day. There was no school today, of course, but it was almost lunchtime. Yuugi decided to see if Yami wanted something to eat, but in the course of only a minute or two, Yami had managed to doze off again. Yuugi sighed to himself. Taking care of someone like this was going to be interesting...

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	3. Rumbles the Dark Hearth

_((sheepish grin))_

Sorry to lay a guilt-trip on people like that...but I do love hearing from you guys!

And now, on to the next chapter!

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Silently, a shape dropped from the sky. Folding its wings close, it swooped low over the sleeping houses. Careful and swift, the unseen tracker hunted for its target. The well-bred tracking demons never failed in finding their targets, and this one was no exception to that rule.

The tracker checked its flight suddenly, as a familiar shape and scent caught its eye. Wheeling around and going to investigate, the tracker saw that it's target was hidden inside a small, squat human building.

Normally the fact of the target being inside a human building wouldn't matter in the slightest, but this particular tracker had orders to the contrary. There was to be no disturbances of the humans. The tracker must find and retrieve the target without revealing its presence.

The tracker could smell a human in the building. Therefore, instead of diving in to capture the not-so-hidden target, it instead sought a perch on another, taller human building that stood nearby. That was a good place to watch and wait for the chance to strike...

It never noticed the pair of eyes that were watching it as it watched the human building. The violet pair watched the demon intently, deft calculation dancing in their depths.

0

0

Yuugi woke up suddenly, as if he had been shocked, but he couldn't remember what had woken him. After a moment's thought, Yuugi remembered. He had had such a weird dream. Even now, Yuugi couldn't really recall most of it, but he knew he'd been looking for something or someone.

Shrugging it off, Yuugi climbed out of bed and got dressed, taking care not to wake Yami in the processes. Yami hadn't woken since their conversation yesterday morning. Yuugi knew the poor guy needed to heal, and though he'd tried to hide it before, Yuugi could tell that Yami was just plain exhausted.

Silently, Yuugi tip-toed downstairs, only freeze in place when the phone rang. Mentally cursing whoever invented the obnoxiously loud device, Yuugi went to answer it. He couldn't 'answer' answer, of course, but Grandpa had rigged up a special recording mechanism that Yuugi could turn on if he was the only one at home when the phone rang.

It told the caller that nobody that could use the phone was home and to please leave a message - his Grandpa had made it out of an old answering machine. It basically was their answering machine, really...Yuugi instantly recognized the voice on the other end.

"Hey man, it's me. Look, I totally forgot an' all, so I'll just tell ya the basics now and bring Honda over in five. No school - they found something real gross all over an' they closed to clean it or something, can you believe it? Yeah, me an' Hon'll be by soon as I tell him. Bye!"

Sure enough, five minutes later the sound of Jonouchi banging on the front door began echoing throughout the house. Yuugi went to answer it. He walked outside to greet his friends, unaware of the many possible consequences of that simple action...

0

0

The tracker braced itself, ready to vacate its perch and dive in to retrieve the target at a moment's notice. It nearly began to pant with excitement as the human actually left the building where the Ban-Ile remained. The demon was thwarted in its attack when the human failed to go any farther away. If only it and the other two humans outside would leave! Until they did so, the tracker was still bound not to attack.

And so the demon continued to watch. As it did so, a strange compulsion seemed to come over it.

If the witless beast had thought about it, it would have recognized that someone else's voice was speaking inside it's head. However, the tracker was not nearly intelligent enough to recognize that.

Instead, the tracker merely listened to what the voice was saying. The voice was whispering in a way that excited its senses, compelling the tracker to chase and hunt it's target, and the Ban-Ile was so _close_, so nearly in reach...

Within minutes, the mindless creature reared up and spread its wings open wide, all orders of concealment forgotten. Flapping it's way over, it gained some height on a morning breeze, before folding it's wings and diving straight for the human building...

0

0

"So, that's the thing. Weird, huh Yuugi?" Jonouchi finished.

(**At least we get a break**) Yuugi signed in reply.

"That's true," Honda laughed, "C'mon! We should go do something!"

"We could always go to the arcade..." Jonouchi offered.

Then the blonde teen ran a hand through his mop of unruly hair and grinned sheepishly.

"Uh, though I don't actually got any money on me..."

"Me neither," Honda agreed, emptying the pockets of his coat to prove it, "Unless you guys think we can buy something with pocket lint."

(**Don't look at me. I'm broke also**) Yuugi signed.

"Damn. Hey, Yuugi," Jonouchi said, brightening up a bit, "Maybe...ya think Gramps would lend us some dough?"

(**Grandpa went on a trip**) Yuugi signed, and Jonouchi groaned.

"Damn, this is just our luck. We get a chance for something fun and we can't do _anything_!"

Honda groaned at Jonouchi's pronouncement, and the brunette's expression was so pitiful that Jonouchi and Yuugi couldn't help but laugh.

Their laughter was interrupted by an odd sound; it was a high-pitched whistling noise, as if something was falling through the air really fast. It was coming from over their heads...all three teens looked up, and stared at some kind of reddish object. It almost seemed aimed for Yuugi's house...

"What the hell? That looks like some kinda..._monster_, or something..."

"Uh, guys, it looks like it's gonna hit -"

All three teens leaped away from the building as the 'monster' rammed right into a window on the second floor, breaking through easily. The three of them had to move further away from the building to avoid the dangers of falling glass pieces. That was when Yuugi remembered what Yami had said to him only yesterday.

_"Telling you would put your life in serious danger,"_ Yami had said.

Well, whatever this thing was, it sure looked seriously dangerous. However the monstrous dangerous thing was inside the house now, so it had either missed by a _very_ large margin - or else it was really after -!

"Yuugi, are you crazy? That monster's in there!" Honda yelled as Yuugi ran for his door and darted inside.

Honda and Jonouchi ran in after their friend. The pair had to skid to a sudden halt to avoid running over said friend, who was staring at something up the stairs. Jonouchi opened his mouth to ask what the matter was, but then he saw what had transfixed Yuugi's attention.

Up at the top of the stairs, the monster could be seen stomping around. It roared and charged at something; from this angle, none of the teens downstairs could see what it was aiming for. Just as quick as it had charged, the monster's roars turned into screams of pain as some kind of flappy-shiny-white THING attacked it right back. The monster stumbled backwards from this retaliation...tripping over it's own tail in the process and rolling down the staircase.

Yuugi, Honda, and Jonouchi had enough sense to dive for cover before the monster crashed into them. The large beast was stunned from the sudden encounter of its head with a brick wall. There was no telling how long that would knock the monster out for, though, and so the three teens quickly headed upstairs before it could wake up and decide to attack _them_ instead.

"That was _way_ too messed up!" Jonouchi yelled as soon as they were safely upstairs.

"You got that right," Honda agreed.

The two watched Yuugi as the smaller boy began acting very oddly. It was almost like he was frantically searching the room for something.

"Wonder what knocked it down the stairs?"

Suddenly, the pair discovered the answer to their question.

0

0

Yami had been pleasantly asleep until he'd heard the phone ringing.

It had startled him at first, before he remembered which human contraption it was. After the voice message had finished, Yami had almost fallen all the way into slumber┘before his senses jerked him rudely back into full consciousness.

It took the Ban-Ile only a few moments to discover the cause of his alarm. Yami's senses had gone off primarily due to the tracker demon that was aimed squarely for the window of the room he was in. At least it was only one tracker.

Normally, Yami could deal with a single tracker easily, but this was nowhere near a normal situation, with his injuries slowing him down like this. Even so, Yami prepared the best defense he could. At least Yuugi wasn't in the room; a demon could go right through a human with very little effort.

The window exploded, glass shards flying, as the tracker went right through it. Its leathery hide shrugged off the glass as the demon landed, before lunging straight for Yami with a roar.

Even as the tracker leapt at him, Yami counterattacked. The Ban-Ile lashed out at the tracker with his good wing, beating at the demon for all he was worth. The tracker screamed and recoiled as the feathers cut into its sensitive snout. Taking advantage of this, Yami tackled the demon, knocking it down the stairs.

On instinct, the tracker lashed out with its massive tail as it fell backwards. The tail connected, unfortunately, and knocked Yami for a loop himself - right into a wall. Yami's bad wing hit the very solid wall rather hard - he could have sworn he'd heard a 'crunch'. The pain this impact resulted in shot through his body harshly, leaving Yami woozy and disoriented.

Yami still had enough sense left to find and crawl behind the largest piece of furniture he could reach. The tracker wasn't dead yet, not by a long shot.

Yuugi found him crouched behind the dresser. The human boy looked relieved to find Yami alive and in one piece, although Yami felt an urge to protest when Yuugi proceeded to drag Yami out into the open.

"What the HELL!"

At the sound of those _spoken_ words, Yami's head whipped around. He'd been so concerned about the tracker that he'd completely overlooked the other two other humans who were now in the room.

"Yuugi, what is that thing?" asked the brunette, pointing at Yami.

"An' why does he got those wings?" added the blonde.

Before any explanations could be thought of, a loud growl from below interrupted the conversation. Yami cursed mentally, and rose to his feet. He didn't want to do this - especially not when he was this weak. However, it appeared that he had no choice in the matter anymore. Yami rose to his feet and carefully walked to the head of the stairs. Once there, the Ban-Ile pulled out the round golden pendant that he wore around his neck. Inscribed with ancient runes, the pendant visibly hummed with power.

"Uh..." one of the humans began speaking.

"Stay back," Yami ordered.

The humans moved away almost eagerly. It was understandable: at the bottom of the steps the tracker was crouched, snarling and looking none too happy. Yami held out the pendant and began to chant the required incantation in a low voice. The pendant glowed brightly, and then released a blindingly bright flash of light. The three humans covered their eyes. The tracker, already leaping up the stairs, let loose a hideous shriek before it dissolved into dust and vanished.

Yami made sure to hide his pendant away carefully, before allowing himself to slump over from exhaustion.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	4. And Helba, Queen of the Dark,

So glad you're enjoying this, everybody! I only hope that I can continue to keep your interest... ((knocks on wood))

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Once the light had died down, Yuugi watched in fascination at how Yami's wings seemed to sparkle from whatever that light thing had been. Then Yuugi started in alarm as Yami sagged onto the railing of the staircase.

(**Yami, are you okay**) Yuugi asked, immediately moving in to assist.

"Don't...worry, I'm alright," Yami said, clinging to the railing.

He looked on the verge of collapse, but was trying to wave off Yuugi's help anyway. It was kind of impossible for Yuugi to not be worried about the Ban-Ile, especially when said Ban-Ile needed to use the railing to keep himself upright. Yuugi was trying to convince Yami to let him support him, wanting to move the Ban-Ile to the spare futon, when the sound of someone clearing their throat reminded Yuugi that Jonouchi and Honda were still in the room -and that they had seen everything that had just happened.

"You planning on explaining this anytime soon or what?" Jonouchi asked.

"That was the freakiest thing ever, and I want to know what happened," Honda agreed.

Yuugi didn't have the faintest clue where to begin. Surprisingly, Yami answered the pair's question.

"I suppose that is a reasonable request," Yami said.

Deciding to move to a room with more chairs, all four of them headed downstairs. There was a visible dent in one of the walls, but otherwise it appeared as if nothing dangerous or strange had happened don here. They settled down in the living room. Yami gave Honda and Jonouchi long looks before he spoke again.

"What do you wish to know?"

"Oh, I don't know," Jonouchi said sarcastically, "Let's start with 'Who the hell are you?'"

Yuugi winced at his friend's tone, but Yami merely gave the pair another look, scrutinizing them closely, and levely replied, "My name is Yami."

"Why do you have those wings?" Honda asked next, "Are you like some kind of freakish mutant or something?"

Yami blinked at the strange question. And Honda had asked that with a perfectly straight face as well...Yuugi had some very odd friends...

"No," Yami replied, "I happen to be one of the Ban-Ile."

"Well that's a freaky name," Jonouchi muttered, mostly to himself.

Clearing his throat, the blond then added, "So, what were ya doing in Yuugi's room in the first place?"

Yami let Yuugi explain things first, preferring watch Jonouchi and Honda's reactions. He only spoke to add a few details that Yuugi was unaware of. The story basically amounted towards the swarm's attack of Yami, Yuugi's discovery of the Ban-Ile in the park, and all events following until now.

"Man, that sounds rough," Jonouchi pointed out, "'Cept, why are those 'demons' trying to get you so bad anyway, Yami?"

(**You never told me the reason either**) Yuugi signed.

Yami hesitated, unwilling to answer that as readily as he'd answered the other questions he'd been asked thus far. Three expectant looks told Yami that none of the teens would be taking 'no' as their answer. And so eventually the Ban-Ile sighed, resigning himself to what lay ahead. In a final attempt to ward off the questions, Yami decided to explain the impending consequences.

"If I do tell you - _any_ of you - then you will all be in extreme danger."

Yami gave each of the other three a hard, searching look, trying to make them understand just how serious this was.

"If I tell you anything, you _will_ be hunted down. Anyone in their way will be butchered just so they can extract the information from you before they kill you. Demons are absolutely relentless in hunting down those who know about this. Are you still interested?"

Yami's tone cut like a knife's blade through any sugarcoating his words might have carried. Jonouchi and Honda were starting to look a tad nervous, but nodded resolutely. Yuugi also seemed a bit nervous, but at the same time the boy looked nearly thoughtful.

(**Right after you told us. What would happen right afterwards**) Yuugi asked.

"We'd need to leave this place immediately to avoid the swarm currently hunting me," Yami answered honestly, "And we would need to move as much as possible from then on. Swarms don't stop until they finish their task or until every single member is dead."

The three teens thought about this.

"I'll listen," Honda said, "I think its bogus to be killing people for some stupid secret, but..."

Honda shrugged.

"Besides, Yami just saved our lives."

"Yeah, we owe 'em," Jonouchi agreed, "And I pay what I owe. I'm in."

(**Me too**) Yuugi signed.

"And how will they know? They aren't watching us right now or something, are they?" Honda asked.

Yami shook his head.

"They can only track by scent," the Ban-Ile explained, "Somehow they always figure it out, every time. Are you three _absolutely_ certain?"

(**Of course**)

"Definitely."

"You bet! 'Sides, can't leave you poor guys alone with Honda, now can I? OW! Shit, can't ya take a damn joke ya bastard!"

Much cursing ensued. Yami stared in confusion, wondering if he should do something about Yuugi's friends and their odd compulsion of trying to beat each other senseless.

"...Are they like...this, quite often?" Yami finally asked Yuugi.

Yuugi shrugged.

(**Not really**) Yuugi signed (**They're usually worse**)

0

0

Once Jou and Honda finished their little thing, Yami was finally able to tell the tragic story of the Ban-Ile. It wasn't a very nice story, even though Yami purposely left most of it out.

_Long ago in the distant past, there was no war and no death. Everything was in harmony. It was in this place that the first Ban-Ile came into being. But this peace and tranquility were not to last._

_One day, a rift opened between this world and the dimension of Shadows, releasing horrible powers that changed the world as it was known forever. Strange new beings came into the world from that rift, including demons._

_As the world dealt with this, the rift sealed itself over. Millions of years later it opened again, during a time of relative calm. From that shadow realm came only one creature - Ulgoth the Destroyer. He was a terrifying creature, and the Lord and Master of all demons._

_He united the swarms of demons under his fearsome control and tried to destroy the world. Many died because of this. In the end, Ulgoth was only stopped by a group of human mages wielding artifacts of great and terrible power. They managed to seal the Master of Demons back inside his shadowy realm._

_Ulgoth then began - via his demon minions - seeking these artifacts, in order to take their power for himself and use it to release him once again. The mages feared this, and conspired to have those artifacts hidden all around the world. Each was to be guarded by the mage that had wielded it._

_Eventually, the descendants of the mages took over their roles, until the demons began killing them. When it seemed as if the demons would slay every descendant and achieve their goals, the Ban-Ile took over the task of hiding and guarding the artifacts._

"Once the demons figured it out, it wasn't long before they began slaughtering my people in earnest," Yami finished, his eyes distant, "There are only a bare handful of us left now."

There was a long pause as the humans in the room digested this information.

"So," Honda said eventually, "That weird golden thingy you used to save us... Was that one of the 'ancient artifact' things?"

"Yes and no."

That answer was wholly unsatisfactory, but when pressed, Yami changed the subject entirely.

"I'd imagine the swarm is on their way back with more trackers - shall we get moving?"

Jonouchi spoke up.

"Wait, how are we gonna hide ya, Yami? I mean, those wings of yours are pretty big..."

Yami closed his eyes, concentrating. Suddenly, both his wings receded into his back, vanishing from sight.

"...Wow. Uh...how long can you do that for?"

"As long as I want to." Yami replied.

They got up.

"Hey, before we go anywhere, Yuugi, ya'd better pack up. If yer're leaving..."

Yuugi nodded and ran upstairs to pack.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	5. has raised finally her army

...I _am_ still holding your interest, right? That's why you're still reading, right?

Right?

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

"I feel uncomfortable in this outfit."

"Well, until we get you some normal clothes, Yami," Honda said, doing his best not to laugh out loud, "That's what you're gonna be wearing."

Since his usual robes were in rather bad shape, not to mention highly unusual attire for humans, Yami had been forced into agreeing to wear what Yuugi's friends called 'normal' clothing. The clothing they had found for Yami in Yuugi's home was much too large - it made him look ridiculous - but the rest of the selection had fit even more poorly, so Yami just had to bear with it.

It didn't help that the clothes clashed hideously.

Yuugi had sent out a message for his absent grandfather. It would hopefully keep the man from worrying too much...the gist of it was that Yuugi had been 'invited to stay at a friend's house for a while', which was hopefully nothing too suspicious.

At the moment, Yuugi was trying hard to look inconspicuous while carrying a suitcase of things he wanted kept safe. They were headed for Jonouchi's home, which Jonouchi assured would be fine because his father hadn't been home for a week anyway, and wasn't likely to show up now.

Once they got settled, the humans began passing the time with a card game, while Yami searched for better clothing. Jonouchi's various closets provided a much more interesting selection of human clothing. Eventually, the Ban-Ile finally managed to construct what he felt was a decent outfit and examined it in a mirror with interest.

Leather was one of the better fabrics that humans used, in his opinion. And in the depths of one of the closets, Yami had discovered a long black trenchcoat which he had had no issues about appropriating for his own use. It swept behind him in a cape-like fashion...a little bit of vanity on Yami's part.

And now that the clothing issue was settled...Yami slipped off the trenchcoat and focused. There was a slight pressure, almost reaching the point of discomfort, before the feathers on his emerging wings punched through the leather. His wings extended to full length, and Yami gave them an experimental flap. They were both fully healed, though his left felt a little stiff and sore still. Yami frowned - he knew it wasn't great to rely on this ability when a wing was damaged so badly. Better to let it heal outside first. Well, there was nothing he could do about it now, except to keep his wings from being damaged so badly again.

Yami retracted his wings and examined the damage done to his new outfit. The slits in his clothes weren't noticeable, and so Yami grabbed the trenchcoat and headed downstairs to where the others were waiting.

0

0

The she-demon snarled - what in hell's name had happened to her tracker? It had actually _disobeyed_ orders, attacking when humans were around.

Well, it was dead now, so there was no way to know what had gone through the tracker's feeble excuse for a mind. Even more interesting was how this time, the Lady couldn't pin this fiasco on her at all. Trackers were bred to obey, so if one didn't, it had to be the fault of the Lady who spawned it. Since the Lady had clearly spawned this useless tracker...there was nothing about the issue that would bother the she-demon at all. If anything, she was delighted to see the Lady so embarrassed - their hatred was quite mutual.

And now the she-demon headed a squad of the swarm's most deadly warriors. They were headed for the human building where the defective tracker had found the Ban-Ile - at least the blasted reject had gotten THAT much right...just before alerting the Ban-Ile to their nearness. Useless waste of meat! Yami would be on the move now, what with his little hiding place being so easily exposed. Hopefully they could pick up the trail before the Ban-Ile got too far away.

The squad surrounded the empty house before entering, and from there they tore the place apart.

Much to the she-demon's disappointment, the Ban-Ile was as long gone as she'd expected. There was a distinctly odd magical residue hanging in the air, but the she-demon dismissed it as unimportant.

The squad of warriors had a tracker with it, as was usual. The she-demon and warriors kept a close watch over it, to insure there was no repeat of disobedience, while the tracker worked hard to discover the trail.

0

0

It was very early in the morning when Jonouchi woke up. For a minute, he just lay there blinking, wondering what time it was. Upon seeing his clock, Jonouchi started feeling less confused and more pissed off, but no matter how he tried he couldn't get back to sleep.

"Weird," Jonouchi muttered as he reluctantly got up.

It was still before dawn, and normally he couldn't really wake up until well after noon.

"Wonder what woke me up?" Jonouchi wondered aloud.

A moment later, Jonouchi heard the source of his unwanted awareness. Someone was knocking on his front door. Shrugging - he was too weirded out by being up this early to wonder why some crazy person wanted to visit at this unnatural time of day - Jonouchi went to answer it. However, when he opened the door, there was no one there.

Jonouchi blinked a few more times. Maybe he was still asleep and just dreaming that he was awake? The blonde teen pinched himself and winced. No, he was awake...he was about to close the door anyway when he heard a new sound. It sounded like a whole bunch of really huge bats or something were headed this way.

Since Jonouchi had already proven that he was awake, that sound was probably a bad thing...

"I'd get inside if I were you," said a voice, cutting through Jonouchi's last bit of sleepy confusion like a knife.

Jonouchi whirled. Much to his amazement, there was someone standing in front of the door now. Somehow they'd gotten behind him without him even noticing! What was weirdest of all was that it was none other than...

"Huh? Kujaku Mai?"

Kujaku Mai, the student teacher, was in fact standing right there, complete with in all her usual, drool-worthy finery. Smirking at the flabbergasted expression on Jonouchi's face, she turned and walked into the house.

"Like I said, you'd better come inside," Mai added once she was past the doorway.

Jonouchi followed her in, closed the door, and then turned to face his unexpected guest.

"You wanna explain something, Mai? What's going on here?"

"Quiet."

Normally, Mai was rather perky and friendly - encouraging the students to call her by her first name, even - but now, Mai was being totally serious. That shut Jonouchi right up, and so quietly the pair peered out the nearest window. There was nothing to see, but the weird flapping noises grew louder and louder. Then they stopped, to be replaced by a bunch of 'thuds' as a bunch of things landed on the roof.

"Mai? What's making those sounds?" Jonouchi asked slowly, unsure if he wanted the answer.

"That," Mai said, pointing upwards, "Would be a demon, my dear Jonouchi."

"A _demon_?"

Both of them turned to see a trio were on the staircase, watching them. Honda looked sleepy, Yuugi looked confused, and Yami looked ready to spontaneously self-combust from anger. Then he got a better look at Mai and stared.

"I don't believe it. What are _you_ doing here?"

"Believe what?" Jonouchi asked.

"It's been a while, hasn't it Yami?" Mai said.

With a smile, Mai did a little mocking bow towards Yami. As she did so, a shining white wing grew out, extending from her back. The wing was folded close to Mai's body like a shimmering half-cape.

"Huh?"

Now Jonouchi was completely confused.

(**Wait. Mai is Ban-Ile as well**) Yuugi signed, looking even more confused.

"Not exactly," Yami said.

"It doesn't really matter right now anyway," Mai said, waving a hand, "Unless you think having half a demon swarm outside is not a problem."

Yami gave a disdainful 'huff', though it didn't really cover his anxiety all that well. Sarcastically, he asked, "Only half?"

There was another loud thud on the roof that ended further bantering. Honda cautiously moved to the window. He glanced around nervously, even though all the demons were sitting on the roof and couldn't be seen that way. "Um...what do we do?" Honda asked.

"Maybe we can go out the back way?" Jonouchi wondered.

"No good - they're on your roof, remember?" Mai pointed out.

She sounded oddly nonplussed at the imminent demonic threat. Yuugi raised his hands as he recalled something from a previous visit to Jonouchi's house.

(**Underground exit**)

"A _what_ exit?"

"Oh yeah!" Jonouchi grinned, "Almost forgot about that!"

Smirking devilishly, Jonouchi unlocked a small door down the hallway and opened it, revealing a staircase leading down.

"There's another way out, though the basement! Me an' Yuugi found it one time a while back...I think ya were sick or something, Honda."

"Oh. Okay," Honda nodded, "So, where does it lead?"

Yami, like Mai, had a wing out now, and was eyeing the ceiling distractedly. Jonouchi suddenly looked embarrassed.

"There's an old tunnel..." Jonouchi hedged.

(**It goes to the sewers**) Yuugi signed.

"Well, nobody said this would be all fun and games!" Jonouchi pointed out when he received several annoyed looks at the news of their destination.

"Fine. Let's go already," Mai said.

Mai went down first. Honda followed Mai, and then Yami and Yuugi followed Honda. Jonouchi went last, locking the door behind him. On top of that, Jonouchi was even able to bar it shut from the inside. This was done in the nick of time - the group nearly jumped out of their skins as they heard the noise of the front door being violently ripped down only a moment later.

Hurrying, they headed down the staircase. The stairs lead to a small, concrete lined room, and right behind the bottom of the steps there was an old, rusted manhole covering.

"You sure got a weird house, man," Honda grunted as the group levered themselves down the manhole one-by-one.

"It's crazy like this 'cause it's real old. Dad got it cheap that way."

Mai was heard grumbling about how this was going to ruin her outfit, and she snapped at Jonouchi and Honda when they started snickering. Yuugi stayed close to the others, since it was dark and he didn't really like the dark. He wasn't afraid of the dark or anything, but when it was dark no one could see his hands and then he couldn't talk to anyone. That always left Yuugi rather annoyed.

Yami, however...Yami still had one wing out, but now it was held close to him, as how Mai's was. Grateful that no one could see what he was doing, Yami kept looking around, but his gaze returned time and again to the ceiling. The tunnel was just a little small for human standards - Honda had his head ducked - but for a creature of flight such as himself, this place was far too confining.

It certainly didn't help matters that they were _underground_ as well. The only real benefit of that was that as flying creatures themselves, demons would eagerly avoid a place like this one, and so they were relatively safe here.

The thought did next to nothing for Yami's claustrophobia.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	6. Apeiron, King of Light beckons

(Insert Witty Remarks Here)

0

Sorry...I don't think I've gotten a decent night's sleep since last Thursday...so what do I do? I post a new chapter at 1:30 AM.

The pinnacle of intelligence, that's me. Yup.

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

0

"Are we there yet?"

"...No."

0

"Are we there yet?"

"..._No_."

0

"Are we -"

"Honda, if you say that one more time!"

Honda grinned, but held his silence. For about seven seconds.

"Are -"

His sentence was cut short by Mai's hand connecting to his face.

"OW! Damn, what was that for?"

Yuugi laughed with Jonouchi, before glancing behind him again. He was feeling concerned about the remaining member of their little group. He could hear Yami easily in the back, but there seemed to be something wrong.

In the interest of discovering the source of the problem, Yuugi left himself drift towards the back of the group. It was harder to judge the distance in the dark like this, and so Yuugi found himself running into something not too long afterwards. From the way it felt - and jumped a little - Yuugi knew it was a person. It was definitely confirmed as Yami when the Ban-Ile spoke, unable to see who had run into him in the first place.

"Who is that?"

For lack of a better answer to that question (it was still too dark for sign language, much to his annoyance) Yuugi reached out for one of Yami's hands. He set the hand down on top of his head as soon as he took hold of one, and spiky shape of his hair gave him away immediately.

"Yuugi?"

Yuugi nodded slowly, still holding Yami's hand to his head so that Yami could 'see' that he was nodding. Communicating was so much harder than it ought to be in the dark... Once that was settled, Yuugi started holding the Ban-Ile's hand the normal way (with his head not involved) and they walked down the tunnel together like that, following the sounds of the others. Jonouchi, Honda, and Mai had gotten a little further ahead during Yami and Yuugi's momentary pause, and the darkness was ever darker without the light from the lighter that Jonouchi had found in his pocket earlier.

At least, Yuugi thought it was darker, until his eyes adjusted and he realized that there was something back here that was giving off some kind of strange, silvery light. It took Yuugi a bit more searching before he discovered the source.

Yami's wing was actually glowing. It wasn't exactly a flashlight, the glow not being particularly strong, but the feathers were giving off a pale light all the same. Glowing wings were a very cool thing to have, in Yuugi's opinion.

"Aha! We finally made it!"

Jonouchi's voice echoed suddenly from up ahead.

"It's about time," Mai's voice grumbled.

"Hey, where's Yuugi? And Yami?"

"_Oi!_ You two still back in there?"

Yuugi nudged Yami to answer. The Ban-Ile blinked, having been lost in thought, before calling, "We're right here."

The tunnel ended just then. Yuugi and Yami eagerly made their way over to where they could see the others standing, out through a circular opening and into a partially lit, very smelly open area.

"Ladies and Germs, let me be the first to welcome you the Domino City Sewers."

Jonouchi gave an exaggerated bow, obviously getting a kick out of pretending that he was ushering them into some glamorous palace or something. Honda just covered his nose and complained.

"Finally! I though we were gonna wander around in that damn tunnel forever!"

In actuality, their trip in the tunnel - which had been longer than Yuugi had remembered - couldn't have taken more than fifteen minutes at most, even with the slow going in the darkness. It was easy to sympathize with Honda, though. Now that he could be seen and understood, Yuugi signed a question.

(**Where do we go now**)

"The swarm will discover this tunnel sooner or later," Yami agreed, "They'll start coming through when they do."

Mai gave an un-ladylike snort.

"Can we just leave, _please?_ I came over just to give you boys a heads-up, not because I wanted to go sewer-diving...especially at this time of night! A lady needs her beauty sleep, after all..."

"Um...how _do_ we get out without going back in that tunnel?" Honda wondered, "I mean, who really goes through the sewers on a regular basis?"

There was a pause. Then, Jonouchi shuffled his feet, seemingly embarrassed. Honda groaned.

"Man, _please_ don't tell us what I think you're gonna tell us."

"It's not like I live down here or anything!" Jonouchi retorted instantly, "I just...it makes a decent shortcut sometimes - that's all!"

"A shortcut to the land of the Mole People, maybe," said an unconvinced Honda.

Even so, the group followed Jonouchi as he lead them away from the tunnel entrance, following the disgusting river of sewage.

0

0

Back in the hollowed out remnants of the Jonouchi household, the she-demon was just about to lose her temper.

That blasted Ban-Ile had most definitely been in the house when they had arrived. The foolish little coward had been hiding here, along with a small group of humans that smelled off.

The she-demon had felt no cause for concern. Taking only half the swarm, and leaving the rest of the warriors behind with the Lady, the she-demon had lead them in a silent assault in the dead of night, when pathetic little human worms wouldn't be awake to get in the way. But just as they had struck, Yami and his little cluster of humans had vanished, seemingly into thin air!

...Well, ALMOST into thin air.

It took almost twenty minutes of searching the house before the tracker finally found the locked and barred door leading underground. From there, the pathetically cramped tunnel that had allowed her prey to elude her was easily discovered. Naturally no self-respecting demon, herself included, was about to happily squeeze into such a tiny underground tunnel like this, not even if a hundred miserable Ban-Ile were at the other end just waiting to be caught.

The she-demon needed to use some 'forceful persuasion' before so much as five warriors and the tracker would climb down the hole. As the demons under her command climbed into the tunnel, the rest uneasily waiting to be 'persuaded' to follow, the she-demon paused a moment in thought.

She knew the Ban-Ile called Yami very well, possibly better than anyone living. She knew just how reluctantly he would have taken a route like this one, even if it were his only means for escape. He didn't so much as _walk_ if he could help it, immensely preferring the sky.

To agree to go into a tiny, underground tunnel like this one, why, Yami would have had to be too injured to argue...the she-demon smiled suddenly, a terrifying expression that sent the nearest warrior diving into the hole head first without further 'persuasion'.

She barked an order, and a score of her remaining warriors eagerly followed her outside. Wings were faster than legs any day, and the she-demon knew exactly where Yami was going...

0

0

"Tah-dah! The other side of town, anybody?"

Jonouchi looked expectantly at his companions as they piled out of the large sewer pipe. This particular pipe opened into an overgrown-looking park. If the blonde was waiting for praise on his excellent navigation, he would be waiting a very long time.

"Thank god! My sense of smell will never be the same again!" Honda cried as he threw himself onto the nearest patch of grass.

"That was the absolute worst thing I've ever done," Mai agreed loudly, "I must smell like a sewer by now!"

(**Bad smell. At least you didn't get pushed into one**) Yuugi signed with grumpy, exaggerated motions.

The mute boy then proceeded to try and scrub his leg with grass from Honda's patch, hoping to get the worst off it. During their sewer sojourn, Honda had decided to express his boredom and displeasure at their traveling arrangements by attempting to push Jonouchi into the river of sewage.

Jonouchi had seen his friend's little prank coming from a mile away, but when he dodged, Yuugi had accidentally gotten in the way. Yami, the next nearest in the group, had thankfully reacted quickly and Yuugi had missed falling headlong into the foul-smelling ooze...Yuugi's left leg up to the knee hadn't been nearly so lucky.

"Don't blame _me_!" Jonouchi protested, "Honda shoved ya!"

Meanwhile, Yami took the opportunity to extend and stretch both his wings out, basking that he had the room to do so. In all, the Ban-Ile was simply happy to be out and in the open. Unfortunately, that happiness was to be short-lived. The others turned in confusion when Yami folded his wings back so fast that they made a snapping sound.

(**Is something wrong**) Yuugi asked.

Yami didn't answer. In fact, Yami barely gave away any indication that he had noticed the question. The Ban-Ile was standing perfectly still, head cocked and listening with an intense, slightly unnerving level of focus.

A moment later, coming across as misleadingly faint and delicate-sounding, came the sound of heavy wings beating the air. The sound grew louder with each passing moment.

"They followed us," Yami said, sounding weary, "We need to move. Now."

"Wait a second."

Everyone turned to stare at Mai. She ignored most of the stares and looked toward Yami.

"You know it as well as I do: if we stay in a big group like this, we'll be far too easy to catch."

"You want us to split up? Is that really such a good idea?" Honda asked, nervously peering up at the sky.

The sound of demon wing-beats was getting louder. After a long moment, Yami sighed and turned to face away from Mai.

"Do what you wish," Yami said.

Nonplussed at the dismissal, Mai turned towards the remaining human trio.

"I'm going to head downtown," Mai told them, "Which of you wants to come with me?"

After a moment, Jonouchi and Honda volunteered to go with Mai. Downtown Domino, after all, was a familiar area for them. Yuugi looked back and forth for a moment, before coming to his decision and moving to stand next to Yami. Honda and Jonouchi looked like they wanted to try and talk their shorter friend into making a different choice, but the sound of demons braying at each other was becoming disturbingly loud - there was no more time left.

"C'mon boys," Mai said, "Let's get moving!"

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	7. At the base of the rainbow they meet

I've been busy. Thus the delay on this chapter.

Hopefully it'll be worth the wait...hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Jonouchi, Honda, and Mai headed off at a quick trot. Yami began walking in the opposite direction, Yuugi trailing along behind him. The Ban-Ile was trying to keep underneath the cover of the densely packed trees. In the dim pre-dawn light, it was hard to see where they were going, and so the pair paused at every tree. During one of those pauses, Yuugi decided to ask Yami a question.

(**Where should we go now anyway? Do you know Yami**)

Yami responded in a quiet voice.

"It all depends on what happens next. If the swarm picks up our trail, our best bet may be to go back into the sewer system..."

Yuugi made a disgusted face, thinking of his still-fragrant leg. Despite his efforts with the grass, he still reeked...Yuugi hoped that it wasn't his smelly leg that lead the demons to him and Yami. Seeing his expression, Yami actually chuckled, albeit grimly.

"I know of worse places to hide," the Ban-Ile said.

There was no more time for talking as the air was filled with the sound of wings, the demons swooping and wheeling about overhead. Yami and Yuugi failed to reach the edge of the park, let alone the sewer pipe, as some of the demons started getting close enough to see them.

With something like a hiss, Yami dragged himself and Yuugi underneath the cover of an especially wide and leafy bush. The tiny branches of the bush scratched at their skin and scraped loudly against Yami's wings, but there was little they could do to avoid that.

When one demon passed especially low overhead, the breeze from its passing made the bush rattle. The pair froze when a second demon landed nearby, allowing them to see it clearly.

The demon that had attacked the house had been skinner and smaller, a tracker demon. But this demon was a warrior demon. It was HUGE. The demon clearly showed off its heavily muscled limbs, its leathery bat-like wings tucked behind its back. It was almost like something out of a nightmare. Eyes like glowing embers peered past a drooling muzzle, blankly staring into the rapidly fading night that surrounded them. Clawed feet dug deep into the soft soil as the demon started to take steps in their direction.

Yami and Yuugi watched as the dreadful thing came closer. It looked like it was going to walk right over to their hiding place and expose them, but just before the demon reached the bush, a second bush rustled. The demon whirled and stared as a small rabbit hopped out. Oblivious to the danger it was in, the little furry creature absent-mindedly nibbled at the grass, ignorant of the predator until it was too late.

Yuugi couldn't tear his eyes away as the demon's arm reached out with lightning swiftness. The demon's talons pierced the skin of the now-panicking rodent, whose legs flailed helplessly. Just as suddenly, the demon's head bent down. With a sickening crunch, it ripped the little rabbit's head off with a single bite.

If Yuugi hadn't been too terrified even to breathe in that moment, he would have screamed as best he could. He was a gentle person by nature and such a violent act, done right before his eyes, was absolutely horrifying. Since he was unable to make a sound, Yuugi instead clung tighter to the nearest bit of safety that he knew of. Yami, having seen everything as well, held Yuugi close as the boy buried his face in his chest and made tiny almost-whimpers.

The slight motion, with its subsequent noise, drew the demon's attention. Still holding the rabbit's headless body, the demon turned back and stared at their bush. Instantly perceiving the danger, Yami tightened his grip on Yuugi, drew his wings over the both of their heads as a shield, closed his eyes and held them shut.

This was not done out of any lack of courage. It was merely that if Yami - or Yuugi, for that matter - were to make any eye contact with the demon, it would perceive them instantly, sound the alarm, and the pair of them would be finished then and there. Until the demon was absolutely certain it had seen something worth reporting, there was still a chance that it would dismiss the noise it had heard. This was only so due to the fact that this was a warrior demon and not a tracker...if this had been a tracker demon, Yuugi and himself would already be as good as dead.

Unfortunately, Yami was by no means perfect. As the demon's heavy steps got closer, a deep-rooted fear grew stronger inside the Ban-Ile, a fear born out of literal years as prey for these damnable monsters. Yami struggled to keep himself still...succumbing to his own panic would be a truly fatal error now...

Maddeningly slowly, the steps drew nearer and nearer, until the demon stood directly beside the bush. The demon's deep, panting breaths, along with the occasional snort, seemed to be the only sounds left in the world.

Suddenly, a braying noise echoed through the trees, coming from not far off. The demon whirled and bolted in the direction of the noise, dropping its headless meal into the bush as it did so.

As soon as they were safely out of earshot, Yami shrugged the little carcass off his wing and crawled out from his hiding place, Yuugi following. The mute boy tried not to look at the rabbit or it's blood that Yami was wiping off of his wing onto the bush. Yami finished cleaning up by kicking the little body under the bush.

"_Disgusting_," Yami said vehemently.

(**Please can we go now**) Yuugi signed, still mourning the poor rabbit's fate.

"Yes - they were heading away from the sewer entrance, we'll go through there," Yami replied.

The Ban-Ile lead the way, the pair hurriedly retracing their steps as fast as they could.

0

0

During this time, the trio of Mai, Honda, and Jonouchi had made it to Mai's apartment with no trouble whatsoever from demons. This did not bode well for the remaining two of their group, Mai noted with dismay.

"You sure got a sweet place, Mai," Honda said as he and Jonouchi looked around.

"You boys will be safe here," Mai told them, sounding distracted, "But...we got away too easily for my liking. Now I'm worried about Yami and that silent kid."

"Y'mean Yuugi? He's cool. Yuugi ain't no pushover, right Honda?" Jonouchi said.

"Yeah, but you remember that demon that attacked the Game Shop," Honda pointed out, "I don't think _anybody_ could take on a whole _gang_ of those creepy monsters.."

Mai made her decision.

"I'm going after them."

"What! You're joking, ain't ya?" Jonouchi protested.

"We can't let you go on your own!" Honda agreed, "It's not safe."

"Oh, you two are so _sweet_ to care about my safety like that..."

Mai winked at the pair. Honda and Jonouchi blushed and stammered.

It didn't take much more persuading for the pair to accept that Mai was more than capable of taking care of herself, even with a swarm of demons. And so Jonouchi and Honda agreed that Mai should go and assist Yami and Yuugi, while they stayed safe and sound in her apartment.

As soon as she was alone on the rooftop, Mai finally let herself open both wings. Her right wing was the normal Ban-Ile wing, silvery with diamond-edged feathers. What made Mai different from a true Ban-Ile was her other wing. Her left wing was a deep, glossy black color. The feathers had edges more akin to obsidian - volcanic glass - than diamond.

It was reminiscent of how she had first gotten her wings; simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thanks to the accident on that day, Mai wasn't just Ban-Ile; she was half Ban-Ile and half human.

Or rather, she was a human that was also half Ban-Ile. Mai recalled many confusing explanations of what the difference was, some of them coming from a rather arrogant, spiky-haired little _brat_ of a Ban-Ile...

Pushing those thoughts of the past to the side, Mai took flight. She headed back towards the old park as fast as her wings could carry her.

0

0

Darting from tree to tree and dodging demons, Yami and Yuugi ran until they finally reached the smelly sanctuary of the sewer entrance. Yuugi panted hard, worn out from the prolonged physical activity, as they hurried down the large pipe. He really needed to put more effort in gym class, not that that was as easy as it sounded. Being short stank - but not as much as the sewers did, Yuugi added mentally, as the wave of odor hit them.

Yami seemed to barely notice the smell at all, but kept glancing behind them. After seeing a fighting demon for the first time, Yuugi could understand Yami's nervous caution quite well.

Without Jonouchi present to guide them, the pair wandered thorough the winding sewers aimlessly at first, taking turns at random. For the first few minutes, it seemed like they would actually be safe in here. Before one turn, however, Yuugi felt a sudden surge of unease. It felt as if taking this turn would be a VERY bad idea...

Shrugging it off as nerves, Yuugi headed around the corner, trailing behind Yami. In the past, though, Yuugi's instincts rarely told him wrong. This was not one of those times. Suddenly, one of the leaner-looking kinds of demons - a tracker - burst out of the shadows and lunged right towards the boy and Ban-Ile both.

Yuugi darted off to the side, but the demon seemed mostly interested in Yami. It took advantage of the Ban-Ile's surprise to launch itself right at Yami, knocking him to the ground.

Because he had been caught so off-guard, Yami was pinned down with his wings stuck underneath him, where they were useless for defending himself with. The demon snarled at it's captured victim and snapped at Yami with its sharp teeth. The Ban-Ile gave little visible indication of the pain he undoubtedly felt as he moved his arm to block the jaws; the demon's fangs pierced the skin easily.

Yuugi couldn't stand by and watch Yami get hurt. Looking around frantically for anything he could use to help, Yuugi spotted a long metal pipe and some large rocks lying on the ground nearby. Instantly, Yuugi had an idea.

Yuugi snatched up the pipe and a rock. Taking a moment to aim, Yuugi threw the rock at the demon. The rock hit it in the head. The demon seemed to recall Yuugi's presence then.

It roared, more out of annoyance than any actual pain from the rock, and abandoned Yami to attack Yuugi instead.

Yuugi dove out of the way at the last minute. Really irritated now, the demon roared again. It's claws scratched deep furrows in the floor as it turned around, scrambling for purchase before rushing and leaping at Yuugi again. This time, Yuugi swung the pipe as hard as he could at the demon.

Mostly by luck, the pipe hit the demon hard in the side of the head. This hit was hard enough to stun the demon, at least for a moment, but the force of the impact caused Yuugi to lost his grip on the pipe.

As soon as the demon recovered, it took full advantage of Yuugi's lack of pipe. It bowled Yuugi over, the demon's jaws closing over his lower left leg. Yuugi thought he heard Yami yelling something, but something that was more distracting, aside from the obvious predicament with his leg, was the strange noise that Yuugi's own mouth suddenly issued.

It took Yuugi a moment before he realized he himself must had yelled, or screamed. The strange, shrill noise could barely be considered either sound...

Just as suddenly, the demon released Yuugi's leg unscathed. Turning away, the demon bolted down the sewer, vanishing from view with an eerie wail of distress.

The pair sat there for a minute, stunned by the sudden end of the fight. Recovering from shock first, Yuugi checked on his leg. Not only was it still attached and undamaged in any way, the demon had actually licked it clean of all the remaining bits of sewage.

Abruptly, Yami cut through the silence with a strained bark of laughter.

"Of course, it was a tracker demon," Yami then explained to the confused mute boy, clearly fighting back more laughter, "They have _extremely_ acute senses of smell and taste."

Yuugi got it then. It was kind of pathetically funny, too. The demon had licked Yuugi's leg to get a taste of what it was about to bite. And since Yuugi's leg was covered in nastiness from the sewer, the demon had tasted something so unspeakably foul that it had run away.

Yuugi had to hold back on a laugh of his own; the adrenaline rush was making him light-headed, but they'd be caught easily if they just sat there and laughed.

As if to prove Yuugi's point, heavy footsteps started echoing around them. Yami and Yuugi scrambled to their feet and started running, hoping to reach an exit from the sewers before the demons that were in the sewers reached them.

0

0

The she-demon lay in wait on her chosen perch. She watched as the tracker bolted from the gaping entrance to the sewers, shrieking with horror. It must have gotten a taste of sewer water - what a nuisance, they would have to kill it now, trackers were useless after sudden sensory shocks.

Not long afterwards, there was a call from above. Something flew quickly past the she-demon's perch, followed by several of the warriors. The she-demon glanced up when she noted the fleeing something gleamed silver in the corner of her eye. Was that Yami they were chasing?

It wasn't. It was a Ban-Ile that the she-demon was unfamiliar with, some freak with a silver wing and a black wing. Leaving the newcomer for her warriors to play with, the she-demon resumed her watching and waiting.

Damn it, Yami had better show his face soon...the sun was starting to peek over the distant horizon. Humans would be awake to notice things, the warriors would need to go kill them, and in the confusion Yami would easily slip away again. That blasted pest of a Ban-Ile had done so before, and more than once, much to her annoyance...

That was when she saw it - a silvery flash of light as someone with large silvery wings ran headlong out of the sewer entrance. Cackling with dark delight, the she-demon spread her wings and gave silent chase.

As they ran with a dozen demons in hot pursuit, Yuugi frantically tried to remember if there were any places that they could hide in this park.

The problem was that Yuugi wasn't certain of which park they were in. Domino City had a few, plus there wasn't any time to stop and try to get his bearings...the demons chasing them ran on all fours, and that made them faster.

'There has to be a way out, there _has_ to be,' Yuugi thought.

Groaning, Yuugi forced his throbbing legs to keep moving, even though it felt like they'd fall off any second now. Yuugi was distracted from the pain and panic when, out of the blue, he heard a peculiarly familiar noise. It was a sort of roaring and whooshing noise. Yuugi tried to place it, but he was unable to, until a stray breeze blew the smell of saltwater into his face.

Of _course_ it was so familiar - this was that old park that ended at that cliff, right at the ocean!

Yuugi reached out and tugged on Yami's hand, gesturing in the right direction. It took Yami a moment to figure it out, but then the Ban-Ile caught on and their pair headed straight for the cliff.

And there it was. The ocean was sparkling bright in the light of dawn. The demons chasing them made distressed noises as the light played over them.

Since it was dawn, a terrific wind was starting up, right at the cliff. Yami grinned. Without a word of warning, Yami scooped Yuugi into his arms, stretched his wings wide open, and dove off of the cliff. Yami's wings caught the breeze easily and expertly, sending them soaring.

Yuugi gaped at the awesome view, his mouth forming the words he couldn't say aloud. Seeing his companion's amazement, Yami laughed. Then the Ban-Ile was turning in the wind, moving gracefully and sending them even higher into the air.

Down below, the demons who had chased them checked their headlong dash before they plummeted over the cliff. Spreading their huge wings wide, the demons took to the air as well. However, they were far slower in gaining altitude than Yami was. In fact, Yuugi saw that Yami didn't pay any attention to the demons behind them, for it was the demons already in the air that were the real danger.

Although, the demons in the air seemed not to notice them at all. Those demons were rather preoccupied with chasing someone with a silver wing, a black wing, and long blonde hair.

Yuugi tried to form words where Yami could see them. It was hard to hold conversations one-handed, but Yuugi could do it...sort of.

(**Mai**) Yuugi managed, (**How**)

"Yes, that's Mai," Yami replied, "You knew she had wings, didn't you?"

When he noted that Yuugi still seemed confused, Yami added, "Mai is only half Ban-Ile. That's why her wings don't match."

'Oh,' Yuugi mouthed.

Yuugi thought about that as Yami banked and flapped his way downtown, following Mai as she flew circles around her pursuit, leaving them behind with ease. There seemed to be a lot more flapping involved than anything else, and Yuugi hoped he wasn't weighing Yami down or anything. As they began soaring over buildings, Mai soared over to join them.

"Hey there boys, long time no see."

Mai waved cheerfully as she swooped past them, going very fast.

"Show-off," Yuugi heard Yami mutter.

Yuugi didn't know what to say in response to that. So, he decided to simply enjoy the experience of flying for as long as it lasted. Yuugi glanced upwards, wanting to take in the sight of the morning sky at dawn. Unfortunately, Yuugi spotted the onrushing danger too late.

0

0

The she-demon grinned dangerously. Fangs bared, she stooped, diving for Yami from a point directly above him. With that human he was carrying, Yami was as dangerous and as maneuverable as a rock. The human looked up and spotted her, just before the she-demon struck, but there was no time for him to call out any sort of warning.

It seemed as if Yami must have gotten _some_ inkling of danger, since he was beginning to make a ponderous turn, but it was simply not enough.

Her claws scraped a wing and sliced down Yami's side. Then she was below him, wheeling around to view the carnage. Yami lost his grip on the human and some altitude from the impact and shock of the attack. The she-demon waited, expecting the human to scream, but the other Ban-Ile swooped over and snatched it up.

Yami regained level flight soon afterwards, turned around to glare at her. The she-demon grinned viciously. She hadn't been mistaken after all, Yami WAS favoring the wing she had targeted before. Such a lovely sign...regaining altitude quickly, the she-demon soared towards her target.

"Oh, my dear little Ban-Ile friend," the she-demon crooned as she drew closer, "This would have ended so much earlier if you weren't so foolish and stubborn. I didn't think you wanted to be damaged so badly..."

"_Damn_ you," he snapped at her.

She laughed, before swooping at him again. This time Yami could dodge her, and did so. He turned and dived towards the human city. Snarling with pleasure, the she-demon dived after him, claws and fangs at the ready.

Yami pushed his wings to the limit. Even as they wove between buildings, shocking the humans that were coming outside with the coming of morning, Yami forwent all stealth in favor of keeping up his speed. Infuriatingly, his nemesis somehow kept up easily, despite the fact that her wings were not meant for fast flight.

Then again, Yami mused to himself bitterly, his wings certainly weren't in the best of shape for this sort of thing either. However, if he couldn't lose her before he wore himself out trying, she'd pounce on him and that would be the end.

Underneath his shirt, the pendant bounced against his chest with every beat of his wings. That was the true reason behind the pursuit, he knew. They'd gone so far as to infiltrate and massacre his tribe for it. Yami knew he couldn't let them have it. At the moment, his best bet would be to hand it off to someone else. Not just anyone - the pendant had power in its own right, which might badly influence someone who used it unknowingly...not to mention bring in demons by the swarm when they realized who held the pendant now.

But if he could find someone that wouldn't or couldn't tell of the pendant's presence...that little thought firmly planted in his head, Yami did his best to try and lose the she-demon.

Diving down the narrowest alleys, where wings could not be moved from the fully spread position, Yami was inwardly thrilled to hear her cursing and crashing into the sides of buildings. That slight advantage gained, Yami turned and flew headlong, aiming for where he thought Mai and the others had gone.

When Yami finally saw them standing on the roof of one of the taller buildings, he was so focused on reaching them that he almost overlooked the she-demon's renewed attack. Barrel-rolling to avoid being slashed to ribbons - the she-demon bellowed with frustration at the missed and wheeled around to try again - Yami had almost made it to safety before the she-demon swooped on him from below at the very last moment. Knocked out of the air, Yami landed on his back with an painful, inelegant thud, the she-demon right on top of him.

Kicking up at her, hard, Yami scored a direct hit to her head, stunning her. Another kick pitched her off the roof, leaving him to pry himself painfully off the gritty material he had landed in before she recovered and came back for more.

Ignoring Mai's warning, Yuugi came straight over to help Yami up. Inspiration flashed through Yami's mind, and with a swift motion, the Ban-Ile pulled the pendant from around his neck, pressing the golden disk into Yuugi's hand and closing the boy's other hand on top of it. Yuugi blinked, looked at what he was now holding, and gaped in shock.

The moment was interrupted by a violent impact. The she-demon's loud, raucous laughter cut through the air, while Yami found himself once again knocked to the ground. Most of his concern was for Yuugi, who had taken a hit to the head and was now lying limp.

Yami only paused long enough to check that Yuugi would be all right. Thankfully, the blow hadn't been too bad for him, what with Yami taking the she-demon's hit at full-force. Yuugi would be fine in a day or two at the most.

"Oh dear, I think I just killed it," the she-demon sneered as she watched Yami checking over the smaller boy, "So sorry about your little pet, even if its your own fault that any of this even _happened_..."

Yami felt something he hadn't realized was inside of him suddenly and brutally snap. Whirling with sudden rage, Yami lunged towards the she-demon. She was startled by this unexpected reaction, so much so that when he tried to tackle her off the roof, he succeeded.

Then she seemed to regain her senses, knocking him away.

"Was it something I said?" the she-demon spat at him, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"If it's the last thing I do I'll rip out that filthy tongue of yours - _ANZU!_"

The rage and venom with which Yami bellowed that threat with was terrifying. Equally terrifying was the reaction that the name he used brought upon him. The she-demon's eyes went wide, then narrowed with unbelievable fury, and she ROARED back at Yami.

"_YOU WILL NEVER CALL ME BY THAT NAME!_"

Before she was even finished, she had lunged at Yami, knocking the Ban-Ile against the side of the building. In a move of utter ferocity, she drove the claws of one hand through Yami's wing, piercing until she hit the concrete surface of the building. The Ban-Ile screamed, and she silenced him by using her other hand to shove Yami's head back against the building hard, knocking him out.

Snarling and screeching with a mixture of utter rage and utter triumph, Anzu the she-demon grabbed Yami the Ban-Ile firmly by the wing she had pierced and took off, thoughts of the others with him driven from her mind completely.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	8. Against the abominable Wave,

Hmm...response is less than I'd hoped for.

Have I been declared a crazed Anzu/Tea-basher and abandoned? I hope not, considering I do not, did not, and never shall bash her or any other Yugioh character. Mock their dubbed antics, yes, but the dub is ridiculous. It deserves mocking. And that's beside the point anyway.

Oh well.

I shall continue nontheless!

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

_In a strange and shifting landscape, he searched. What he sought, he had no idea, but he was looking quite hard for it. The scenery around him turned dark and cold, and he found himself walking down a dim and dank corridor._

_Echoes of half-fading sound reached him; screams of what had to be unspeakable agony, roars from terrifying unseen beasts, and dreadful moans that he could somehow horrifyingly tell came from something only half alive. It was enough to make him retch, but still he searched for whatever it was that he was looking for._

_A flash of silver drew his gaze to the end of the corridor, where he saw rows and rows of small dark cages, dangling from the ceiling on thick dark chains. There was something bright and white and shining in one of them..._

Yuugi's eyes shot open.

He sat up, and then instantly thought better of it as a throbbing ache suddenly attacked his head on all sides. Gritting his teeth, Yuugi tried to force the pain to go away. Surprisingly, this worked. As the pain began to fade Yuugi looked around. He was in somebody's bedroom, all alone. Yuugi blinked at the vibrantly pink upholstery, before the door opened. Jonouchi walked in, stopping dead in his tracks when saw that Yuugi was awake and looking at him.

"Yuugi! It's about time y'finally woke up!"

Yuugi winced at the joyous shout. The pain in his head wasn't all gone yet. Unaware of this painful interference, Jonouchi continued speaking loudly.

"Man, we saw you get knocked out. It's been two days, we were all getting worried..."

Jonouchi trailed off, Yuugi staring back at him. He'd been knocked unconscious for two entire _days_? Jonouchi then chose to mention something about getting the others and left, presumably to go and find them; Yuugi let himself sink back into the pillows. Outside, he could hear rain falling. It sounded like a very heavy rainstorm; some corner of Yuugi's mind noted that it was a little odd for so much rain this time of year.

Eventually, Jonouchi returned with Honda and Mai in tow. Yuugi noticed instantly that someone from their group was missing.

(**Where is Yami**) Yuugi asked, already fearing the worst.

The suddenly downcast looks the other three were wearing only confirmed Yuugi's fears. Mai still felt the need to say the dreadful words out loud.

"Shortly after you were knocked out, Yami was captured," Mai said softly.

Even with the expectation that that was true, hearing it was still painful. After a minute, Yuugi tried to get up - why, he wasn't sure, but he felt like he just had to move. The others stopped Yuugi, telling him he still needed to take it easy for a while. After a bit more uncomfortable silence, the others excused themselves, leaving Yuugi alone.

Yuugi tried to do as they wanted, and attempted to doze. But something about the fact that Yami was gone - besides the fact that he was in the clutches of the demons, who were doing who-knew-what to him - was just too disturbing. Yuugi had to see for himself, to quiet the part of himself that was raging and denying, over and over, that Yami was really gone.

Knowing there were people on the other side of the bedroom door, and that they would send him back to bed as soon as he tried to leave, Yuugi tried to make himself not think of anything. He listened to the rain that was coming down as fierce as ever.

The rain sounded angry, as though something important to it had been taken away as well. The weather would forget and it's fury would pass over time, but Yuugi didn't even have anything to remember him by...

0

0

Yuugi paused in his meandering thoughts, poised over the last few words.

Something to remember him by...like that pendant! Yami's pendant! Yami had given it to him moments before that girl demon had attacked. Where was it?

Yuugi looked around the room, but the pendant was nowhere in sight. Maybe it was in another room...Yuugi tiptoed out of the bedroom. The rest of the apartment was open before him. Yuugi couldn't see any sign of the pendant anywhere, but he could hear someone taking a shower, and Jonouchi was asleep on Mai's couch.

Maybe the pendant had been left behind accidentally...and so it was still on the roof? Yuugi hoped this apartment was in the same building...slipping on his shoes and borrowing an umbrella, Yuugi crept out of the apartment, eyes peeled for someone stopping him, and climbed up the stairs.

Rain pelted him and a gust of wind sent a chill through him the moment Yuugi pushed open the rooftop door. Ignoring the weather, Yuugi looked around the roof. Eventually, a glint of gold caught his eye. Yuugi went to check it immediately, and was delighted to find the pendant lying out in the open, waiting for him. When he picked it up, Yuugi was startled to discover that the pendant, despite lying out in the rain and cold for hours on end, was completely dry and warm. It seemed almost to _hum_ as it lay in his hand...

While Yuugi wondered about this, he caught a glimpse of something. It was only a flash of something else on the roof, something gleaming and bright. Yuugi spotted it just out of the very corner of his eye. Stuffing the pendant away in a pocket, Yuugi wandered over to the source of the gleam with a vague sense of curiosity.

It was a feather of some kind, long and elegant looking. It stuck out of the weird gritty material that the roof was covered with at an odd angle. Yuugi thought it seemed almost as if the wing this feather had come from had been slammed hard against the roof, and this single feather had been ripped free...

"Yuugi! Are you trying to catch pneumonia out here?"

Mai stormed up behind him, her features stern. Then, seeing what Yuugi held in his hand, they faltered.

"...Come back inside. We need to plan on what we should do next," Mai said.

Yuugi took the feather back inside with him. It was almost eerily sad to contemplate how the gleaming feather still possessed its subtle glow...

0

0

"Hey, I have a question. What can we really do, anyway?" Honda asked as soon as the four of them began to confer.

"They were after Yami," Jonouchi pointed out, "And now that they have him, is there any chance we can find where they'd keep him?"

Remembering something Yami had said, Jonouchi added, "Wait, if they have Yami, are they even gonna come back for us?"

"Not likely," Mai said, "Actually, you boys could just go back to your old lives right now. Forget this even happened."

Yuugi shook his head immediately.

(**No. Couldn't forget this**) he signed.

Seeing the depressed state of their gentle-hearted friend, Honda and Jonouchi felt guilty for even considering Mai's suggestion. Knowing their friend very well, it didn't take much longer for Jonouchi to follow the train of thought that Yuugi was leaning towards to its conclusion, even before the mute teen began to consider it himself.

Hell, it was probably inevitable anyway.

"..._Is_ there any chance we can get him back?"

Yuugi and Honda jerked in their seats, startled. Mai just blinked at the question, confused that it would even be asked. And humans made fun of their _female_ blondes for having a lack of forethought?

"Do you even understand what it is you're proposing, Jonouchi?" Mai asked Jonouchi, just to be certain, "You want to go against a demon swarm to try and single-handedly rescue Yami?"

(**Not single**) Yuugi signed, (**I want to find Yami also**)

"Both of you..."

Mai trailed off, her face clearly showing her troubled thoughts. Discarding them with a shake of her head and a rueful smile, Mai continued, "You're going to have quite a job locating him. That swarm is long gone by now. Unless you knew where they planned to take Yami, there's no way for you to track them."

"We'll figure something out!" Jonouchi protested, not to be dissuaded.

"A cross-country chase, when we have no idea where we'll be going?"

Honda looked doubtful. Then the doubt changed into remorse.

"Not to mention that my folks would go berserk if I cut town. You know how they are...well, Jonouchi does."

The blond teen nodded.

"Yeah, I know. It's okay if you need to stay here, Honda," Jonouchi added, "Can't force ya to risk your life ticking off your folks. Right Yuugi?"

Yuugi signed his agreement, not the least bit angry. Mai chose to stay out of the matter, not being a full-fledged member of their friendship troop. As soon as the three teens had done their little routines to reassure each other that they would be best friends forever and that nothing would ever change that, Honda excused himself to go back home.

_"If I don't know what you guys are up to, or where the hell you're going, who can I tell?"_ was Honda's reasoning.

Once Honda was gone, Yuugi turned to Mai.

(**Is there any sort of clue or anything to where the demons took Yami**) Yuugi asked, (**If the demons have been hunting Ban-Ile all this time, the Ban-Ile must have some sort of idea**)

Mai thought. Several minutes of near-silence passed - Jonouchi was fidgeting - before Mai spoke again.

"The only thing I ever heard of was this old poem," Mai explained, "It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does talk about the location of the 'homeland of the demons'. This may have nothing to do with where that swarm has taken Yami, but it's all I can think of..."

"Better than nothing at all," Jonouchi grinned, "Let'er rip, Mai!"

Eyes closed to aid her recall, Mai recited the verse.

"_**If untimely end be what thou seeks,**_

_**My dearest friends, please follow me.**_

_**Know me as Door to Dark and Despair**_

_**Hidden not in lands of fair.**_

_**Blue serpent head in water's heart,**_

_**This is the mark of thy start.**_

_**My breath flows out to mark the place**_

_**Tails become heads in this way.**_

_**Follow back without a change**_

_**Mark where sky and clouds meet and part ways.**_

_**Here thy dilemma shall only grow**_

_**A rule of Shadow that thou didst not know.**_

_**Having only ancient treasured Key**_

_**I shall open up to thee.**_

_**Having golden Key and Lock**_

_**On the Door to Death thou is safe to knock.**_

_**Knowing this that either way**_

_**To Demon Death thy visit pays.**_"

Yuugi and Jonouchi sat for a bit after the poem ended. Finally Jonouchi, unable to contain his response to the words, spoke.

"That was the creepiest, weirdest, no-sense-makingest thing I have EVER heard. Ever."

"I warned you," Mai replied.

"Guess we're back to step one, eh Yuugi?"

Yuugi, however, was still thinking about the words quite hard. The only visible signals of Yuugi's intense mental activities were his distant gaze and the twitching of his fingers - as if they were trying to form the words of the thoughts going through Yuugi's sharp mind. Seeing these cues, Jonouchi grinned. The only reason Yuugi was in the same class as himself and Honda at school was the shorter teen's lack of interest in doing schoolwork. Otherwise, Yuugi was a certifiable genius, through and through.

Once he was finished contemplating the meaning of the poem, Yuugi refocused his gaze to see Jonouchi watching him expectantly.

"Got something?" the blonde teen asked.

Yuugi nodded.

(**Think so**) Yuugi signed, (**Directions made no sense. Thing about Key and Lock reminded me of Yami's story. Powerful treasures sound like those artifacts. I think we need at least one to go to land of demons**)

"Cool! I love a good scavenger hunt," Jonouchi grinned.

"That does make sense," Mai said, "If the artifacts sealed the way into the demon's homeland, then they would naturally allow passage. That's the reason the demons are hunting down Ban-Ile to begin with, to find the artifacts!"

Inwardly, Mai was wondering why this had never occurred to her. It seemed so obvious...but most revelations seemed obvious in hindsight.

"Uh, just out of curiosity..." Jonouchi asked, his enthusiasm ebbing only slightly, "You know anything about that, Mai? Like, how many do we gotta chose from?"

"It's common knowledge that there were seven mystical artifacts used in the seal," Mai explained, "They were a specially created set, the only ones that could do the job. After the sealing, the artifacts were locked away, scattered across the globe. No one except those who guard them know where exactly any of them are, as there are so many possible hiding places to go through."

"Awesome!" Jonouchi exclaimed, nearly cheering, "After all, it would totally suck if this turned out to be too easy. Right?"

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	9. together they fight

Ugh. College is starting again soon.

...Though not as soon as high school is!

_((dodges things pelted by angry high schoolers_))

Yeesh! Sorry to remind you about that, I wasn't trying to rub in my later start date or anything...

((_coughWednesdayintwoweekscoughcough_))

...What?

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

The rain that had been pounding the city for days and days had finally let up. It was still cloudy out, the threat of renewed showers damping the mood of the city, but there were things to do that didn't involve going outside anyway. Thus, one Mokuba Kaiba successfully persuaded his older brother to go with him to the newly opened museum exhibit.

When his brother continued being a stick-in-the-mud while they were at the museum, Mokuba's next plan of action was to become 'accidentally separated' from his overprotective older brother. A bit of frustration and panic never hurt anyone, now did it?

While Seto Kaiba wandered the depths of the museum in search of him, Mokuba chose to hung around near the entrance. That was how Mokuba saw the odd pair.

"This idea is perfectly good. Just trust me - ain't all my ideas gone perfectly?"

The taller blond teenager was talking out loud, perfectly normally. The other guy, who was actually Mokuba's height even with the freakish hair, made a series of weird shapes and gestures with his hands. The tall blonde guy watched the short freaky-haired guy, and then groaned.

"You and Honda ain't never gonna let me forget that one, are ya?"

The pair laughed, obvious good friends. Mokuba, intrigued by this as well as confused why he even cared, was so busy watching them interact that he forgot to watch where he was going. All three boys were startled when the young Kaiba walked right into the pair.

"Damn, watch it!" the tall guy yelped.

"...Uh, hey, you're okay, right?" he added as he and the short guy helped Mokuba back to his feet, "Eh, um...'Kid-that-falls-on-people'?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mokuba shrugged, wondering at the weird nickname, "And the name's Mokuba. Who the heck are you?"

The blonde guy grinned, apparently approving of Mokuba's attitude.

"Name's Jonouchi. This here is my buddy Yuugi."

Yuugi made a sign with his hands. After a pause, Jonouchi said, "Uh, he wants to know if ya can read sign language. That's how he talks."

"No, I can't read it. Why do you talk like that?" Mokuba asked Yuugi, "Are you a deaf-mute or something?"

Yuugi laughed at the question, and Mokuba felt himself flush with embarrassment. Of course Yuugi wasn't a deaf-mute, he could obviously hear just fine. Yuugi's laughter was actually kind of creepy close-up, though - Yuugi went through all the motions right, but there was no sound at all. Well, if Yuugi thought it was a funny mistake for Mokuba to make, then it was probably alright...

"Nah, he's not deaf," Jonouchi agreed, apparently not caring either, "Hey, Mokuba, were ya with anybody?"

"I came with my brother," Mokuba said, "He should be around here somewhere looking for me. Did you guys come to see the new exhibit?"

"Yep," Jonouchi said, "You seen it yet?"

"Sure have! It's really great! C'mon, I'll show you all the best parts!" Mokuba grinned.

Seizing the hands of his new friends, Mokuba somehow managed to drag both of them towards the exhibit entrance. Mokuba possessed surprising strength for a ten-year-old...not that Yuugi or Jonouchi were objecting to being lead. Just as the three of them vanished into the crowded exhibit, a tall brown-haired teen passed by, piercing blue eyes roving about in search.

0

0

"See? I _told_ you it was awesome!"

Mokuba pointed towards the next part of the exhibit, where a bulky stone with writing and pictures carved on it was on display. Jonouchi and Yuugi followed Mokuba's lead, staring at all the weird and interesting stuff that the exhibit had to offer. This was an international exhibition, with all sorts of strange relics displayed to the public from all over the world. Yuugi was taking care to examine every thing they saw carefully. Hopefully, one of these artifacts would provide a clue that would lead them to one of the seven artifacts that they needed...

This trip had been Jonouchi's idea - he had been the one to get the newspaper - and Mai and Yuugi both agreed that it was a good one. What better place to check out information on ruins and artifacts than a museum - especially one that was currently hosting an exhibit of ancient treasures from all sorts of different places? The odds were sound that there WAS something they could use here.

Yuugi and Jonouchi, unable to wait, had come early. Mai was going to come by later. She would know better than the two of them about what was related to the Ban-Ile and what wasn't. However, Yuugi was hoping to find something useful before she came. Otherwise, he wouldn't feel like he was really contributing to the search. Yuugi didn't know what it was he should be looking for, but he was fairly confident that he would recognize it when he found it.

Mokuba and Jonouchi were starting to get ahead of Yuugi, as they were not attempting to carefully examine everything in the exhibit. Yuugi was finishing looking at a weird jar and box from someplace in China, and turning to follow his friends, when he spotted something in the corner that got his interest. It was a stairwell, tucked out of the way of the main exhibition. Curiosity tugging at him, Yuugi decided to go take a little look. What harm could that be?

The stairs lead downstairs. Not seeing any signs forbidding entry, Yuugi walked down the stairs and ended up in what looked like some kind of storeroom. There were many tables, all filled with artifacts.

These were more artifacts for the exhibit upstairs, Yuugi realized. They just hadn't been put out for the public yet. Yuugi shoved his hands deeply in his pockets, just in case someone from the museum found him down here. He wasn't going to risk even touching one of these artifacts, but Yuugi did plan to take a look. This might save himself and Jonouchi a second trip to the museum...

Yuugi saw a lot of strange things, but there was one item, tucked in the farthest corner from the stairs, that really got his attention. It was a weird stone tablet, carved with weird markings, and depicting weird people doing weird things.

"I see that you have not hesitated to find the rarest item of our collection..."

Hearing a strange voice come out of nowhere, Yuugi nearly jumped out of his skin. Turning around, Yuugi found himself in front of a woman he had never seen before. She had long black hair, deeply tanned skin, dark blue eyes, and was wearing a dress of a style that Yuugi had never seen anyone wear before. She looked foreign to Yuugi. On top of that, she seemed to be amused that she had startled him so.

Despite not expecting her to understand him, Yuugi signed an apology for wandering into this private area.

Much to Yuugi's continued surprise, the foreigner woman raised her hands and signed (**No harm has been done. Do not worry**)

(**You can sign also**)

Yuugi's fingers nearly tangled from his surprise as he replied to the foreigner woman.

"I am fluent in many tongues," the woman explained, "Not all of them are spoken."

She paused, waiting for Yuugi to regain his composure. Once Yuugi had done so, the woman turned toward the huge carving that Yuugi had been eyeing.

With a smile, the woman said, "I will be working down here for a while longer. Please feel free to ask me any questions about this artifact."

Once she had finished speaking, the foreigner woman turned and walked off, into the mass of artifacts. Yuugi wondered when she had come in. He could have sworn that the room was empty when he came down the stairs...well, it probably didn't matter. Yuugi decided that the woman must be in charge of the artifacts. Since she had only seem pleased with his interest, he would give the carving another quick look before heading back upstairs.

Taking another look, Yuugi realized that the figures carved into the rock were oddly familiar to him. They had wings...Yuugi received his third shock in as many minutes when he remembered what Yami had said. These figures looked like classic examples of angels, but if all the world's so-called 'angels' were really _Ban-Ile_...

Yuugi rummaged in his pockets, pulling out the pendant when he found it. Now that he was really paying attention, Yuugi saw that the pendant was covered in weirdly-shaped writing. It was the exact same sort of weird script that was carved into the rock next to the pictures of Ban-Ile!

Feeling a rush of excitement run through him, Yuugi shoved the pendant back into his pocket, turned away from the carving, and went in search of the foreign woman. She wasn't too far away, writing up some chart about some old feathery mask that sat on the table before her. She looked up at Yuugi and smiled when she saw him coming over.

(**Excuse me**) Yuugi signed.

"You discovered a question?" she replied.

Pausing at the weird phrasing of the sentence, Yuugi nodded.

(**That stone over there. I was wondering where it was from**)

"Ah," she said, still smiling, "That stone came out of a Chinese excavation. It made for many interesting headlines in the newspapers in Hong Kong. It's a wonderful addition to our collection. Did you have any other questions?"

Yuugi shook his head, hurriedly thanked the woman, and tried not to run as he made his way back up the stairs. Just wait until Jonouchi and Mai heard about this!

0

0

As soon as he was back on the main floor of the museum, Yuugi looked for Jonouchi. Luckily for Yuugi, Jonouchi was actually standing not too far away from the stairwell. It was obvious that the blond teen was looking for him.

Yuugi slipped between the packed bodies in the crowd and tugged on Jonouchi's sleeve to get his attention.

"There ya are!" Jonouchi exclaimed once he looked down, "Me and Mokuba were looking all over the place for you, Yuugi!"

(**Sorry**) Yuugi signed (**I saw something really amazing. Where did Mokuba go**)

"He went looking that way," Jonouchi said.

The tall blond waded through the crowd of people, Yuugi trailing along behind him. Over at the very edge of the crowd, Mokuba was standing. The black-haired boy seemed relieved to see Yuugi following Jonouchi out of the mass of people.

"Yuugi! I was worried that you'd been trampled to death by that monster crowd," Mokuba grinned.

Yuugi grinned sheepishly back.

"What the hell was so interesting anyway?" Jonouchi asked.

(**Found a clue to the Ban-Ile**) Yuugi signed.

He was suddenly glad that Mokuba couldn't understand sign language. He was a fun kid, but Mokuba didn't need to have his normal life twisted around by all their problems.

(**We need to go to China**) Yuugi added.

Surprised, Jonouchi exclaimed, "You're kidding me. We need to go to _China_ now?"

"China?" Mokuba asked, puzzled.

(**Mai can help us get there**) Yuugi suggested.

"Yeah, I guess she probably could..."

Jonouchi scratched the back of his head when he saw Mokuba's confusion.

"Sorry, Mokuba. Didn't mean to ignore ya...we actually gotta go now. You be alright on your own?"

"It's okay," Mokuba said, though he was obviously curious about what his new friends were talking about, "Actually, I should go find my brother. He might get upset if I make him search the museum any more for me."

Slowly the three of them made their way through the mass of people touring the exhibit, heading for the front exit. It got a lot easier to move forward when they joined the flow of people who had seen everything and were going home now. For some reason, this included a few tall and muscular guys wearing sunglasses and black suits.

"Oi! Ever heard of personal space?" Jonouchi grunted when one of these suited men jostled him.

Yuugi vaguely realized that the suits were surrounding them just before they reached out and seized himself and Mokuba by the arms. Things started speeding up at that point.

Mokuba tried to run away from the man holding him. The man easily stopped Mokuba from escaping, lifting him up into the air by his arms. Mokuba kicked and yelled, "Get off of me, you stupid goon!"

Jonouchi tried to come to his friends' aid, but three of the suits were blocking the way. It was soon down to two suits, but Jonouchi was unable to get any closer. The crowd, which was starting to be disturbed by the sudden onset of violence, was no help in that area.

Yuugi was in the same position as Mokuba, thrashing and kicking. He scored a decent hit on the suit holding him, but to Yuugi's dismay, the suit only grunted in response to the pain and tightened his grip. The suits holding Yuugi and Mokuba were making their way to the front door of the museum now, pushing their way through the crowd.

Mokuba took a deep breath.

"BIG BROTHER!"

In response to this summons, a tall brunette seemed to materialize from out of the panicking crowd of people. The brunette was wielding a metal briefcase, which he did not hesitate to use as a weapon on the foolish suit that rose to stop him. Coming in at a different angle, Jonouchi was using every trick he knew to get to his friends. Unfortunately, these efforts were too late to be of any help.

While the majority of the suited men stayed back to hold off Mokuba's brother and Jonouchi, the men carrying Mokuba and Yuugi dragged them out the front door and down the steps of the museum. Down where the steps reached the street, a large beige van was waiting.

That was the last Yuugi knew of their situation. A heavy weight impacted harshly with the back of his head, and then Yuugi knew no more.

0

0

Not longer afterwards, but in a different place entirely, a pair of dark shapes walked down a hallway in the darkness. The two carried their burden between them, but it would have been no burden at all for only one to carry such a limp thing.

Moving from almost total darkness to a room lit by a dim glow, the pair of shapes - shapes that turned out to be the shape of demons - moved to deposit their prisoner in one of the cages. The cages were quite small, cramped for all but the smallest creature, and dangled from the ceiling on lengths of thick dark chain. The pair of demons paused at a cage, tossed their burden inside, and locked it shut tightly.

As they made their way out, one of the demons paused at the very next cage. This was the only occupied one in the room, until now, and the demon took great pleasure in rattling the bars. The occupant glared out at the demon, unable to do anything else, which made both demons laugh.

It could have been hours and hours later before a set of reddish-purple eyes opened, accompanied by a groan of pain from their owner. Oh, his whole body was a massive throbbing ache...

"It's about time you woke up. I thought you'd gone and died on me."

Startled by the voice that had suddenly cut into the quiet, Yami tried to push himself up, off of the ground. The voice had sounded _familiar_...and the last thing he could clearly remember was being attacked by -

Automatically, Yami's wings flared, trying to spread themselves for flight or defense. Moments later, they struck the cold metal bars. Discovering his sudden confinement was another shock for Yami, but it failed to match the one he received when he looked towards the source of the voice. It was...but why would he be here, imprisoned as well?

"...'Kura?" Yami asked, feeling slightly foolish, "Is that you?"

The occupant of the adjoining cage glared at him, annoyed by what really was a foolish question.

"No, it's the bloody human tooth fairy. Of _course_ it's me you utter imbecile!"

In the second cage, another Ban-Ile leaned against the bars. Long white hair flared dramatically, surrounding a pale, angular face that possessed a pair of pointed eyes. The eyes were brown, their color so dark it was easily mistakable for black. Still possessing that air of annoyance at the stupidity of the world in general, it was a familiar sight that Yami had never expected to see again.

"It's been a long time. I was beginning to think you'd flown into something again, and killed yourself like an idiot."

...Not that Yami had been too grieved when he'd thought the other was lost.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Bakura," Yami replied.

"Hmph. Looking the way you do, I can see it wasn't from lack of trying," Bakura said, "Though I suppose any head trauma could do nothing but make you cleverer, wouldn't it? By the way, under which rock exactly did you find those...ah, garments?"

The 'garments' Bakura referred to were torn in several places, but had held up well against the rough treatment that Yami had gone through between putting them on and now. Feeling somewhat vindicated by his choice of leather because of this, Yami settled for glaring at the smirking Ban-Ile in the other cage.

Bakura immediately glared right back, of course. They were friends - sort of - but that didn't mean they had to act like it.

This semi-peaceful moment was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Several large demons entered the room, approaching the occupied cages. The largest demon, and apparently the one in charge, leaned forward until he was close enough to breathe on Yami's face.

"New flitter," said the leader demon, "Good! More flitter for playing with. Lady say, no kill flitter. Break arms, break legs, yes. Time to eat."

Yami grimaced. The demon's breath was the most foul thing he had ever smelled, including the sewers. What were the demons _feeding_ each other? Bakura, naturally, seemed to find this hilarious.

"Look at that," Bakura smirked, "I do believe he's taken a liking to you, Yami."

"Isn't that wonderful," Yami groaned.

The demon was still holding his snout very close to Yami's face, and the smell was beginning to nauseate him. Wanting to do something to make the foul beast move away, Yami did the first thing he could think of - he spat at the demon, trying to hit it in someplace like the eye. Since that was about a foot away from him, success came easily.

So did punishment. The demon snarled, and moved with lightning swiftness. It seized hold of the bars and shook the cage around for a few minutes. After having metal bars cracked over his head a couple of times, Yami was woozy and definitely not up to spitting at demons again for a while.

"Funny flitter," the demon hissed next, "Funny flitter want to be funny? See how funny after three moons no food. Feed other flitter."

A second demon tossed something into Bakura's cage. Then, duty completed, the demons walked down the row of cages and out of the room. Yami, who was rubbing his abused head, winced when he hit a sore spot. Damn, that would probably bruise...

"What did I tell you? You're still an idiot," Bakura sighed.

The pale-haired Ban-Ile picked up the object the demons had put in his cage. It might have been meat, but from what was a vague and worrisome subject. The object looked like it had been carved from tired gray wood, and was shaped rather like a small rodent.

"...Do you even know what that is?" Yami asked, eyeing the thing warily.

"I think it was a rat at some point," Bakura replied cheerfully, "But it must have been too tough to chew for the person who ate this before me. Obviously, they tried to swallow it whole, but then they spit it back up again...oh well."

Knowing he was being mocked, Yami glared at Bakura. The other Ban-Ile ignored it, instead choosing to bite into what looked like the head of the possible-rat food-like-thing. Bakura ripped that part off with minimal difficulty, smirking fiendishly as he chewed.

Yami averted his gaze at that point, and tried to ignore the sounds. If Bakura didn't make him throw up the small meal he'd managed to have back at Jonouchi's house, it would most likely be a miraculous event. And Yami wasn't going to get fed for a while, either - not that he wanted to eat what a demon would consider food. It probably wouldn't make much difference though: Yami knew he had a bad habit of going off food when under stress.

'_And if being caught by demons and trapped in a tiny cage with only Bakura for company with pain and death looming over me isn't stress, then stress doesn't _exist,' the Ban-Ile thought to himself morosely.

A soft 'thump' sound distracted Yami from his thoughts. Glancing down, Yami discovered that a portion of Bakura's gray rat-like food-thing was sitting on the floor of his cage.

"Eat, you stupid idiot. You _don't_ want to be here with an empty stomach," Bakura growled around the remainder of his food-thing.

There was a long moment of quiet, broken only by the sounds of Bakura chewing. Finally, Yami picked his piece off the cage floor.

"...I'm glad you're still alive, Bakura."

Bakura shrugged.

"Yeah, me too."

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	10. Alba's lake boils

_((heavy sigh))_

Chem lab, Chem lecture, Chem discussion...three hard classes for the price of one! Not to mention higher math...my head hurts. I'm tired.

So in other words, the semester's off to a flying start. Yippee.

And now, with all due apologies for the delay, I bring you the next chapter for my fic!

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

As he drifted back up to consciousness, Yuugi slowly became aware of his surroundings. It felt like he was lying on weird metal floor. He could feel it bouncing a bit, and a noise that sounded like a trapped animal...or maybe a car engine.

Yuugi was still sluggishly processing this thought when the jolts and bumps stopped. Yuugi could feel a flood of bright light on his closed eyes. Someone grabbed him then, lifting Yuugi off the floor and carrying him somewhere as if he were the sack of balls from gym class.

While this was going on, Yuugi's synapses started firing more rapidly, attempting to get his thought processes back up to their normal speed.

"Just put him with the other one for now," a voice said out of nowhere.

There was more of the 'being carried' sensation, before it ended courtesy of the sudden shock of being dropped onto the floor. This was a different one, it felt like wood, not metal. Yuugi heard a door close and footsteps walk away, and wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to try to open his eyes and sit up yet.

Where was he? Yuugi couldn't remember what had happened to him. It must have been bad if his head hurt so much...Yuugi cast his mind back, trying to recall what was starting to make him feel a sense of distress. Yuugi thought about home, and the Shop...Grandpa was going to see a friend on a dig, which was good since then he wouldn't have to explain Yami -

That was the keyword that triggered an explosion inside his head, as Yuugi's memories rushed back in an instant: YamidemonsMaipendentmuseum_somethingsmashingintothebac ofhishead_...

Once the memory rush began to settle down, Yuugi was able to take notice that he wasn't alone, where it was he was now. In fact, there was someone shaking him, urging Yuugi to get up.

"C'mon, they couldn't have hit you _that_ hard," the voice said, its' owner obviously worried.

Yuugi responded to the demands of the urging voice. He opened his eyes and sat up, wincing at how his head sharply protested that. Mokuba, sitting beside him on the floor, looked immensely relieved.

"Yuugi, don't scare me like that! I almost thought you were dead or something!" Mokuba exclaimed.

Yuugi's hands twitched. He wanted to say something to reassure Mokuba, but Mokuba couldn't understand sign language. Yuugi had to settle for an exaggerated head-grabbing motion and an inquisitive look, which thankfully Mokuba managed to interpret.

"I'm okay," Mokuba said, "My headache's going away, really. I can't believe those idiots hit us so hard, they could have really hurt us doing that! That would have been a big surprise for these idiots...what the hell did they think they were doing, no one is stupid enough do to _that_..."

Yuugi wondered at Mokuba's apparent familiarity with the correct procedures involved in being knocked out and abducted. Unable to ask such a complicated thing through gesture alone, Yuugi chose to take a look around the room. It wasn't very large. There was a window, with light streaming through the glass. Otherwise, the room was minimally furnished; it had a cot, a chair, and nothing else. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of the same undecorated wood.

Mokuba blinked when Yuugi pointed at his wrist. Did the mute teen want to know what time it was? Why would Yuugi want to know what time it was...unless - oh!

"'How long have we been in here'?" Mokuba asked.

Yuugi nodded, relieved that he was able to get this question across. It was tricker than he preferred, but Yuugi had had plenty of experience teaching Honda and Jonouchi sign language, as well as learning it himself, to understand how to talk to someone who didn't know the exact shapes of the words. At least when it came to dealing with simple concepts like this. Complicated matters, on the other hand...unfortunately, Yuugi didn't think that their captors had left them pens or paper.

"I think it's been a day since we were at the museum," Mokuba said, "It was kind of late in the afternoon when we were taken, and it looks more like morning outside now to me."

Yuugi nodded thoughtfully at that. Then he clambered to his feet, and went to check out the window.

"I tried the window already," Mokuba spoke up, getting to his feet as well, "It's locked shut with a padlock."

Even so, Yuugi pulled the chair over and stood on it to get a look at the window. The window was indeed locked tightly shut. Yuugi looked out the window to see if he could get any idea of where they were. There was grass outside, even with the bottom of the window - this room must be mostly underground. Yuugi agreed with Mokuba that it was morning outside; all the grass he could see sparkled with dew in the sunlight. It wasn't a bad sight, really.

Yuugi got off the chair, pushed it away from the window, and sat down on it. There was nothing to do but wait for the people holding them to act, Yuugi knew.

They didn't have to wait long. A minute or two later, the door opened. Some men in black suits and sunglasses were standing there. Mokuba bolted to put Yuugi and the chair in between himself and the suits.

"What do you bastards want now?" Mokuba demanded from his safe perch.

The suits ignored the question. Someone standing behind the suits - another suit - gave the others an order.

"Take Mokuba to the dining hall," was the order, which the three other suits immediately proceeded to do.

Yuugi and Mokuba struggled, fighting against being separated while in this situation, but the odds were not in their favor. Three large men against a small boy and a teenager of the same height didn't make for much of a fight. Mokuba was dragged out kicking and swearing between two of the suits, while the third kept a thrashing Yuugi painfully pinned against the wall.

Once Mokuba was out of the room, the suit holding Yuugi dropped him and walked out. The suits closed the door behind them and relocked it, while Yuugi pulled himself off the floor again, rubbing the many sore and aching spots he seemed to be accumulating these days.

Yuugi wondered why suits had taken Mokuba to the dining hall of wherever this was. He also wondered why this kidnapping had happened in the first place, and what Mai and Jonouchi were doing right now, and if Yami was doing alright wherever he was now...

The little room suddenly seemed so much more confining then it had been a minute ago. Unable to shake off the worrisome thoughts, Yuugi decided to take another look outside. The view might be able to distract him from thinking about the situation he and Mokuba were in.

Pushing the chair back and climbing on top of it, Yuugi discovered something was waiting for him when he looked outside this time. A little bird - Yuugi thought it was a sparrow, or something like that - was pecking at the grass and dirt by the window. The bird took no notice whatsoever of its' silent observer as it hopped around, moving from spot to spot and searching for whatever it was pecking for...probably looking for some food, was Yuugi's thought.

Seeing that little bit of normalcy actually made Yuugi feel better. It was a reminder that the rest of the world wasn't completely insane. Yuugi let his mind drift a bit, watching as the bird hopped closer to the window, chirping as it went.

That was when Yuugi heard the sound.

((**Food good food good! Where food has gone? Found food! Food!**))

Yuugi jerked out of his inattentive doze at the sound of the voice. Where was that little voice coming from?

((**Food!**)) continued the little voice, ((**Food good, good food! Yeah food good food!**))

Starting to worry for his sanity a bit - had that blow to the head done more damage than he'd thought? - Yuugi looked around, trying to discover the source of the voice. When he finally figured it out, it was probably the most bizarre moment of Yuugi's entire life - and he was including the large portions that hadn't happened yet in that idea.

The bird was chirping. Yuugi could hear the chirps perfectly well. But inside his head, the chirps translated themselves into words.

'Oh no,' Yuugi groaned mentally, 'I got hit so hard in the head that I've started to hallucinate!'

Then Yuugi shook his head. No, he wasn't hallucinating. Yuugi wasn't certain how he knew this, but somehow he was completely sure that this was not a fabrication of an unraveling mind. And that had been a dumb idea to think of anyway. But what other explanation for this sudden comprehension of bird lingo was there?

The bird hopped a little closer to the window as Yuugi tried to figure it out. Coming out with nothing, Yuugi pressed his fists against his head in frustration. On top of that, Yuugi let his normally unflappable control over himself slip, just for a moment, and released a shrill, angry noise from the depths of his throat.

0

Something Yuugi had never bothered to tell anyone - not even Grandpa - was that he wasn't really all _that_ mute: at least, in the traditional sense of not being able to make any sounds when he was trying to talk.

Yuugi could indeed make sounds with his throat. They even sounded like words to him when he listened to himself speak. The _actual_ noises Yuugi made were always strange and shrill, practically inhuman. No one else could ever understand him like that, so Yuugi had long ago stopped trying to talk out loud to other people, learning sign language in order to communicate.

Occasionally, and at only at times that he was certain he was alone, Yuugi would sometimes try to practice talking normally. But not matter how hard he tried to force himself to make normal sounds, only the weird noises ever came out of his mouth. It was very discouraging, really...

Now, if the weird noise he had just made could be translated, Yuugi knew, it would probably mean something along the lines of '_Damn it! I hate this!_'. It was certainly an appropriate sentiment for the situation...

0

((**Hate what? What hate where?**))

Yuugi blinked. The little voice he heard coming from the bird had stopped its' sing-song commentary.

((**I heard you!**)) went the little voice, ((**I heard you, hate what? Who there?**))

Turning back to face the window, Yuugi was astonished to see the bird was looking straight _at_ him, a confused look in its beady little eyes. Spotting Yuugi behind the glass of the window, the bird scooted closer and chirped ((**You there? Dirt! Who there in dirt-place?**))

Suddenly, Yuugi was actually glad he was alone right now. That meant no one would be around to see him do something freakish, stupid, and non-helpful towards his and Mokuba's escape. Yuugi took a deep breath, tried to remember what it felt like to talk out loud, and gave it a shot.

(((**Hello?**)))

The bird tilted its head, looking very puzzled. Just when Yuugi was starting to believe that making that sound really had been pointless, the bird replied with a cheerful ((**Hello!**))

'Oh my god...' Yuugi thought, 'I can't believe it!'

((**Me no see you!**)) the bird suddenly protested, tilting its' head this way and that, ((**Why you behind human-dirt?**))

'Huh? Oh, it must think its' talking to another bird,' Yuugi realized.

(((**I'm the one talking,**))) Yuugi said, slowly gesturing at himself, (((**My name is Yuugi. I'm a human, but I never realized I could talk like this before.**)))

The bird seemed utterly shocked.

((**Human-dirt speaking flyertongue! What next, walking flowers?**))

The bird preened itself for a moment, clearly trying to resolve this conflict in its mind. It seemed to think very quickly, because a moment later, the bird turned back to Yuugi and calmly asked ((**You say hate this? Why you in there if no like?**))

(((**I can't get out**,))) Yuugi explained, (((**Those men put me in here and locked the door. I'm trapped in here**.)))

((**Human-dirt puts human-dirt in cage?**)) the bird seemed astounded. ((**Human-dirts are all for crazy beaking! Crazy beaking! Now me wanna help you out of cage.**))

(((**You do?**))) Yuugi asked, (((**That would be wonderful! Thank you!**)))

((**Me like helping flyer,**)) the bird replied, sounding pleased, ((**You is flyer, you speak flyertongue. Even if you no fly.**))

The bird chirped laughter for a moment - it seemed to think this concept was vastly entertaining - and then fluttered away, presumably in order to get help. Trying not to wonder about the sort of help a small bird like that could acquire, Yuugi massaged his throat, which was starting to feel sore and scratchy. He hadn't used it so much since...actually Yuugi couldn't really remember using his voice so much at all.

The bird returned fairly quickly.

((**Big bad mess for you**,)) it said, ((**Wall good for stopping dirts when you no fly. Straight from here, wall has perch-place. Here you wall-walk. You know wall-walk, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly?**))

(((**What is wall-walking?**))) Yuugi asked.

((**Human-dirt walk with four feet up wall. I see human-dirt do this.**))

Picturing this image inside his head, Yuugi realized what the bird meant. 'Wall-walking' could only mean climbing, which was not something that birds did. Birds seemed to use very odd terms to describe things that they didn't normally do...and the addition of 'Flyer-No-Fly' to his name was probably significant as well. Yuugi wanted to remember these little details, in case he ever found himself talking to birds again. Not that that was likely to happen.

(((**I can do that,**))) Yuugi told the bird.

((**Is good! From wall-walk, straight through human-forest. There is human-black-river, and many human-stone-nest. Is good, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly?**))

(((**That's great! Thank you so much!**)))

The bird chirped happily and flew away. Yuugi really was thankful that he knew a way out of this place. The only problem now was that there was no way for himself or Mokuba to get outside to follow the bird's directions. On top of that, Yuugi decided that even if Mokuba could understand sign language, he wouldn't tell Mokuba about getting directions from a bird. He was already questioning his sanity enough for the moment, no need to have other people help out with that...

Sitting down on the chair, Yuugi was momentarily started when the door to the room suddenly opened. Mokuba was shoved inside, before the door was closed and loudly locked again. Yuugi sprang to his feet and went to see if Mokuba was okay.

"I'm fine," Mokuba said, even though he took the chair when it was offered, "Those jerks had my brother on the phone. They want him to pay a ransom for me, but of _course_ he wouldn't deal unless he knew I was alright."

Mokuba's expression darkened as the black-haired boy let his anger show.

"The idiots and my brother ended up agreeing that they're gonna exchange me for the ransom money tonight. I don't think my brother knows about you being stuck here too, Yuugi, but knowing the stupid idiots here, they'll probably try to sneak you in and then demand even _more_ money from him to get me. Stupid bastards..."

Yuugi perched himself on the cot and waited for Mokuba to run out of curses for the men that were holding them. Once he was slightly calmer, Mokuba explained why this sort of thing tended to happen frequently to him and his brother. Mokuba's brother Seto was a multi-billionaire - how that was so didn't come up - but because Seto was a teenager, people thought it would be easy to take all his money away.

While Mokuba gave abbreviated explanations of other instances where he had been kidnapped and Seto's fortune had been demanded as a ransom - as well as what Seto had done to the kidnappers instead of paying - Yuugi let himself sprawl out on the cot. It was a pretty big cot, actually, with enough room for both of them if they didn't mind sharing or touching each other.

Yuugi tried to lie face-down, but doing so made something poke his chest. Suddenly remembering the only thing that could be causing that, Yuugi rolled over and pulled out his necklace. It wasn't much of a necklace, since Yuugi had just tied Yami's feather to a loop of string. Yuugi patted his chest and sighed in relief - it would be pretty stupid to hurt himself just because he wanted to keep Yami's feather with him.

Mokuba had stopped talking. When Yuugi looked over, concerned, he saw that Mokuba was staring at the long, stiff feather in Yuugi's hand.

"...Yuugi, is that a...feather?"

Mokuba looked fairly dubious, but came for a closer look after Yuugi nodded.

"Why is it glowing?" Mokuba blurted out after another moment, "I mean...it might be - be radioactive, or something! Are you sure you should be holding it without lead gloves?"

Yuugi gave Mokuba a look, and the boy flushed in embarrassment.

"C'mon, I've never such a weird feather before," Mokuba mumbled, "Cut me a break, will you?"

Nodding, Yuugi held the feather out, offering to let Mokuba hold it if he wanted. Gingerly, Mokuba did so, cautiously running his finger up and down the silvery-bright feather.

"Where did you get this thing, anyway? This has got to be the weirdest _OW!_"

Mokuba dropped the feather. It drifted down towards the floorboards, but Yuugi reached out and caught it before it got away from them. Mokuba had other concerns at the moment.

"It _bit_ me!"

He showed Yuugi the small cut on the tip of his finger, before shoving the finger back into his mouth to suck on it. Yuugi very carefully tested the edge with one of his own fingers. The feather's edge was still unnaturally razor sharp, like a piece of broken glass.

"You could use that thing as a _weapon_ or something," Mokuba said, taking his finger back out of his mouth, "Or to cut through stuff. That thing is seriously weird..."

Mokuba trailed off as Yuugi leaned over, pressed the feather's edge against the nearest bit of wood - the wall - and experimented with cutting into it using the feather. Much to both their surprises, the feather cut through with alarming ease.

"...Hey," Mokuba said slowly, "...Hey! Yuugi, I have an idea! This feather might be _just_ what we're needing!"

0

0

The guards outside opened the door and peered into the room. Both boys were curled up on the cot, asleep in the darkness of the unlit room. Relocking the door, the guards went to take a much-needed break. There was over an hour before Kaiba would be delivering the ransom, and both kids were asleep...what could possibly happen?

Inside the darkened room, the not-so-asleep boys opened their eyes and sat up.

"We should have a while," Mokuba said, "Try not to cut yourself up, Yuugi."

Mokuba moved to sit quietly next to the locked door, listening for the return of the guards. Yuugi went to stand on the chair by the window. He reached for the padlock, then went to work. They had tested the feather on the metal of the padlock before, and it had worked, but sawing away like that had made noise. Now that there were no guards listening for strange noises, Yuugi could saw away at the only thing keeping himself and Mokuba from escaping through the little window, which was _just_ the right size for the two of them to fit through.

It took ten minutes for Yuugi to saw all the way through the ring of the padlock, and another ten to make the hole wide enough to pull the padlock free altogether. Slipping the little metal padlock absently into a pocket, Yuugi tugged on the window. The hinges were in pretty good shape, but it still jammed up once it was open.

One right after the other, Yuugi and Mokuba climbed out the window and crouched in the shadows that draped over the wide lawn this close to dusk.

"Now where do we go?" Mokuba muttered.

Remembering the bird's instructions, Yuugi pointed straight ahead. Yuugi tried to act like he had chosen the direction at random, and Mokuba shrugged, apparently believing just that.

"A good a place as any, I guess."

And off they ran, trying to keep low to the ground as they moved. Yuugi put a hand on his head, attempting to keep his distinctively pointy hairstyle from giving them away. It seemed like ages before they finally reached the wall.

"Oh, good call Yuugi," Mokuba exclaimed, pointing excitedly, "Look, this part's got a really good place to climb over!"

The wall was made of large stone blocks, but in one area, the wall's builders seemed to have run out of those large blocks. Instead, they seemingly chose to pile a lot of smaller blocks that stuck out of the wall at random. This left more than enough room for anyone who wanted to climb this otherwise impassible wall to get good handholds and footholds.

Mokuba went first, Yuugi following him up. When he got stale bird droppings on his hands, Yuugi absently realized that _this_ was why this was called the 'perch-place' - birds had been using it to hang around on, and _they_ certainly didn't care what they went to the bathroom on...

They got over the wall easily, and once they were on the other side, it felt like they were in a forest...or maybe a park.

'I guess 'Human-forest' must mean a place like a park,' Yuugi thought, 'So that means that a 'human-black-river' is...a road, maybe? And the 'human-stone-nests' are buildings, probably houses? I wish bird language came with some definitions!'

Yuugi's thoughts were derailed when an alarm began wailing shrilly.

"That's it! We gotta go, now!" Mokuba exclaimed.

The two of them started running through the trees, away from the wall.

0

0

After a great deal of arguing, Seto Kaiba had agreed to bring Mai and Jonouchi with him when he made the exchange.

It was _pathetically_ obvious that those lousy crooks would try to pass Yuugi off as Mokuba, just to get more money out of Kaiba. Mai and Jonouchi planned to keep that from happening as best they knew; Jonouchi planned to beat people the old-fashioned way, and Mai had more than a few tricks up her sleeves.

The two of them were worried that the crooks might hurt Yuugi and Mokuba to get what they wanted from Kaiba...Jonouchi was especially concerned that Kaiba would go through Yuugi to save his brother, which would be just as bad.

However, it looked as if things had settled themselves without any assistance from the three of them. Just as Kaiba's limo was pulling past a small park that lay across the road from an apartment complex - their destination none too far ahead of them - an alarm went off somewhere in the depths of the trees.

"What's going on now?" Jonouchi grumbled.

Kaiba signaled his driver to stop the limo, a smirk starting to grow on his face. As the limo slowed to a halt, two short figures emerged from the park and bolted across the room in front of them, ignoring the immediate danger of being hit by the limo.

One of the figures had crazily spiked hair. Jonouchi slapped at the window controls. When the window was down, Jonouchi yelled at the figures, who might have kept going otherwise.

"Oi! You wanna a lift or what!"

Yuugi and Mokuba screeched to a halt, panting for air. Jonouchi opened the door, stuck his head out, and waved cheerfully at them. The pair stumbled over to the limo and Jonouchi slammed the door shut behind them.

"No _wonder_ you didn't care about the trade," Mai said, watching with carefully concealed amusement as Mokuba hugged his brother as if he never planned to let go again.

Kaiba's smug smirk only grew wider and smugger.

"I did take into consideration the fact that _your_ little friend might not have been able to escape on his own," Kaiba replied condescendingly.

Yuugi was too busy breathing hard to pay attention to what Kaiba was saying, but Jonouchi eagerly glared at Kaiba on his friend's behalf. Something about Kaiba just rubbed Jonouchi the wrong way...

Even as he was finally catching his breath, Yuugi hurriedly signed something at the other people in the limo.

"They're following you guys?"

Jonouchi growled, before attempting to get out and deal with the problem personally. The door clicked and locked itself under his fingertips. Kaiba was still smirking, his hand on a control panel.

"Why you -"

The limo started moving with a lurch that cut off the rest of Jonouchi's words.

"I informed the driver to take us back to our mansion," Kaiba sneered, "I doubt it would occur to you to be grateful that I didn't let you jump out and stay behind."

"You..." Jonouchi growled.

"Se-_t_o," Mokuba whined, changing the subject abruptly, "I'm sick of being stuck at home!"

Kaiba lost his smug look as soon as he turned to his little brother.

"You'll just have to live with it, Mokuba. It's only until I find and crush every single one of the pathetic fools in their pathetic organization..."

"You said that _last_ month!"

"It's been over a month and you _still_ haven't gotten these people yet?" Mai asked, sounding honestly amazed.

Kaiba shot her a withering look, which Mai ignored. Mokuba, however, nodded in response to her words.

"These guys are _weird_. Normally my brother gets them easily, right as soon as they try something," the younger Kaiba explained, "But I think _these_ guys know about the last bunch of times that this happened, because they're being a real pain to track down. Right, big brother?"

Kaiba nodded, not about to verbally admit this sort of failure inside a car full of people he didn't like or trust as much as he did Mokuba. It was a quiet ride after that, until they passed through a pair of wide gates and pulled up to an enormous mansion.

Jonouchi managed to forget that it belonged to someone he didn't like, and stared out the window at it. Yuugi stared as well, having never seen a house that big before. Mokuba and Mai both seemed to think it was no big deal.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	11. Light's great tree doth fall

Heh. I almost feel loved.

On a random and unrelated note, I am now the proud owner of a shiny new PS2.

At least I assume it's shiny...haven't actually had a chance to open the box yet...eh heh heh...

...Let's just get to the chapter, shall we?

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

"Oh yes, and how _wonderful_ it is that you've managed to accomplish your task at last...even with the _extremely_ large delay..."

The dangerous voice crooned out of the darkness with more then a little sarcasm. The sarcasm swiftly shifted into a contempt-filled rage. "There is just _one_ thing you overlooked - the Ban-Ile in question no longer possesses the First Key! You _wretched imbecile - !_"

The voice rose to a shriek. Anzu the she-demon gritted her teeth and tried not to cry out as a fiery whip soared out of the dark to land soundly across her folded wings. Bloody hells, that _stung!_

"I beg for your forgiveness, O glorious Hive-Queen," she whimpered from her spot on the floor.

"Anything that begs is an _insult_ to its' race," the voice hissed in reply.

"Go back to the city where you found it and find the Key! We must have it! As for the Ban-Ile, we will..._ask_ it...where it has left its' little trinket. I suggest you fly _swiftly_..."

The menacing voice trailed off into a leisurely purr as Anzu crawled away, the wounds from the whip smoking. Healing her wings would delay her even further, but in the end, Anzu knew, it was going to be worth it.

She sneered and lashed her tail, now that there was no one watching. It was going to be _all_ worth it...

0

0

Seto Kaiba watched on the mansions' security cameras as Mokuba hung out with his new friends, the other two kids. Well, Yuugi Motou and Katsuya Jonouchi were actually about his age, but in general, other people Seto's age were so pathetically feeble-minded and immature that it was hard to think of them as anything but children.

That Mai Kujaku woman had left to get a few things from home, or so she claimed. Mokuba had completely balked on letting these two new friends of his leave. Seto had been tempted to run a more in-depth background check on all three of them, but Mokuba had suspected his thoughts and insisted that Seto leave well enough alone.

So now Seto was watching on the monitors, while Mokuba and the others played a card game together. Motou and Mokuba were the ones actually playing, and the blond fool was translating Motou's sign language for Mokuba.

"I play this in defense mode," Mokuba said as he put a card facedown.

Yuugi put a card face up, flipped a second one, and made a few quick gestures with his hands.

"Yuugi says '_I use Stop Defense on your card, and attack it with my Celtic Guardian_'!" Jonouchi translated.

Mokuba groaned.

"Oh no, that wipes out the rest of my life points!"

After making a big show of being disappointed by his loss, Mokuba and his new friends laughed and reshuffled their cards Seto found that he'd watched their duel with a level of interest that surprised himself.

The name of this game was Duel Monsters, and it was a trading card game that had recently become quite popular. Seto was personally proud to be an expert at the game, having never lost once. Mokuba had talent for the game, and training him was one of the few ways for Seto to keep his brother from complaining about being restricted to the mansion.

From what Seto had seen, Motou was a formidable player himself...professional tournament level, minimum. Seto hadn't found a professional dueling record for him at all, which confused him; why would someone with obvious skill resign himself to playing against only weaklings?

Seto's thoughts on the matter were interrupted when Mai Kujaku walked into the room, greeting the three boys inside. This made Seto frown, looking over his computer systems with unwanted discomfort.

_How_ had that woman managed to simply _walk in_, without so much as a single alarm going off at her presence? Scanning the records of the last few minutes, Seto's eyes widened as he found no trace of Mai's entry. None at all. How the hell had she gotten past his security?

Determined to learn the answer, Seto left the monitor room. Moving speedily through the familiar maze of rooms, Seto paused just outside of the room where Mokuba and the mansions' erstwhile guests were conversing. At the moment, the other three were quietly listening while Mai spoke.

"I do have enough for three plane tickets to Hong Kong," Mai was saying, "Unfortunately, I doubt I can manage a pair of round-trip of tickets for you two."

"Oh, we probably ain't gonna be coming back that soon anyway," Jonouchi replied.

Seto could hear the blond fool's grin in his words. The sound grated in his ears.

Deciding to act instead of just listen in, Seto threw the door he was standing behind wide open and walked into the room. The surprised expression on Jonouchi's face was comical, and both Motou and Mai looked startled at Seto's sudden entrance. Only Mokuba seemed unsurprised; Seto had a habit of coming into a room suddenly, in order to unsettle whoever he might be dealing with. It was a cheap but effective tactic, and Mokuba was used to it.

"You three are planning on leaving the country?" Seto asked, going for the heart of the matter before the three had a chance to recover their composure.

Motou was not thrown off-balance for long. Frowning up at Seto from his seat, Motou seemed to think things over for a moment, before signing (**Why do you want to know**)

"I would be more than happy to have you three escorted off the grounds right now, if it's such a personal matter," Seto retorted.

Seto was resisting the temptation to go ahead and do just that. There was the slight possibility that Motou and his two friends were somehow connected to the group that had been causing himself and Mokuba so much annoyance of late...but Mokuba wouldn't want his new friends kicked out without proof of their ill intentions, and so Seto would continue to resist that temptation.

The blond idiot made resisting quite a chore.

0

0

While his brother and new friends glared at each other, Mokuba's still-developing yet already-devious mind began plotting. Seto had already put his foot down on Mokuba going anywhere even remotely near fun ever again. Even _after_ the stupid idiot brigade was uncovered and dealt with, Seto would probably keep his foot down as a 'preventive measure' or something.

That, Mokuba could not allow.

Yuugi, Jonouchi, and their friend Mai, seemed to have really interesting stuff going on. Of course, that was probably what was setting off Seto's _Anti-Mokuba's-Fun Sensor_, damn it. Mokuba liked his new friends, and if they were having some trouble, Mokuba thought that he'd be a lot of help. After all, Mokuba was smart, sneaky, and had an older brother who was a genius multi-billionaire. Those were some pretty awesome assets right there.

And so, if Yuugi, Jonouchi, and their friend Mai needed to go to some other country, why couldn't Mokuba come along with them? In fact, going on a little international trip like that might allow Mokuba to escape the double threat of confinement to the mansion AND any possible kidnappings simultaneously! It was all wonderfully sound logic to Mokuba.

"Seto, if they go to China then can I go to China with them too?"

Mokuba timed this outburst to interrupt the beginnings of what might have been a very loud and unpleasant argument between Seto and Jonouchi. The blond teen trailed off in mid-word, blinking confusedly at Mokuba. Yuugi and Mai seemed to have forgotten that Mokuba was in the same room as they were until that moment.

Even Seto seemed startled. That was a bonus, as Mokuba rarely was able to startled his older brother...Seto was just a little bit paranoid. Seto recovered almost instantly, of course.

"Absolutely not!" Seto snapped.

"Why not!" Mokuba protested, "I like them, they're cool, and if I was in China those goons wouldn't be able to get me so easily!"

"We'll discuss this later," Seto said.

Mokuba recognized that tone...'later' would be after his new friends were gone, and the discussion would consist of Seto telling Mokuba why his idea had been faulty. Seto was a genius, but he wasn't exactly the best source of parenting material.

"He's got a point," Mai piped up, "If this is such a problem for you two, why haven't you tried something like this? It's generally much more difficult to bother someone if no one knows where they are..."

Seto bristled, whirling on this new target. Mokuba wished he had gotten some time to coach his new friends on how to handle his brother. Deep down, Seto was only angry about not being able to protect him from being kidnapped again, which made him even harder to get along with...

"And you actually expect me to believe that _you_ three have any means for keeping my brother safe? What could have possibly possessed you to believe I would just hand Mokuba over to you three and watch you walk away?"

"I could hardly expect _that_," Mai sniffed.

This unexpected response made Seto pause for a moment. Taking advantage of that, Mai continued, "It would hardly make sense for Mokuba to join us by himself. Both of you should come with us."

"What!" Seto yelled.

"WHAT!" Jonouchi nearly shrieked.

Mokuba nodded to himself. This would work better than his original plan - Mokuba might want to leave the mansion, but he in no way wanted to leave his brother behind. The fact that Seto paused to actually consider the possibilities after making his initial outburst was an even better sign.

"If I were to even remotely _consider_ that ridiculous idea," Seto said at length, "You three had better start explaining what it is you're after. _Now_."

0

0

It felt like a hours had passed by the time everything was finally explained. Between the translations for Yuugi, the extensive explanations of certain points from Mai, and the bickering that kept flaring up between Jonouchi and Kaiba, getting everything out right had been a difficult endeavor.

Getting Kaiba to accept their story, let alone _believe_ any of it, was another endeavor in itself. At the moment, Kaiba was eerily silent. Yuugi fairly certain that the only reason for this silence was due to the fact that Kaiba couldn't decide where to begin tearing their story to pieces.

Mokuba, on the other hand, was an open-minded ten-year-old boy.

"You were chased around by big monsters?" Mokuba exclaimed, "That's so cool - way cooler then lousy goons in suits!"

"Sure is...though it really wasn't that fun at the time..." Jonouchi admitted.

"That is the single most absurdly _pathetic_ excuse for a lie that it has ever been my misfortune to be privy to," Kaiba interrupted, "The next time you try concocting ridiculous stories, why don't you use the few brain cells between you and think of something even remotely believable. '_Demons_' and '_magic_'...do I look that gullible to you?"

"Shut up!" Jonouchi retorted, "This is all totally true! Even though you're such a hard-assed bastard that you wouldn't recognize magic if it bit ya in the ass, even you would know that there's no reason for us to lie about something like this!"

"You'd rather I believe that you're so feeble-minded that you actually believe this pathetic fantasy is _true?_ Forgive me for assuming you had a shred of intelligence," Kaiba replied.

Jonouchi sprang to his feet, fists raised. Kaiba remained seated, eying the enraged blond with an expression of amused contempt. Before the argument could fully escalate into something more physical and dangerous, Mokuba spoke up again.

"But Seto, they're really not making it up! I saw that weird magic feather myself!"

Ignoring Jonouchi completely, Kaiba turned and directed a puzzled look towards his younger brother. He wasn't the only one confused, either. Mokuba hurried to explain some of the details of his and Yuugi's escape.

"And really, Seto, I would have known if there was something fishy going on," Mokuba concluded, "But that feather sawed through a piece of solid steel!"

Kaiba hesitated, clearly trying to think of something that could be made to resemble a feather, while retaining the quality of cutting through steel. Not wanting Kaiba to come to a wrong conclusion - if there was something like that in the world, Kaiba would take it as proof of his being right - Yuugi hurriedly pulled out the feather. Ignoring the way Mai and Jonouchi started when they saw it, Yuugi held it out for inspection.

Eyes narrowed and calculating, Kaiba deftly plucked the feather out of Yuugi's hand and examined it. Yuugi hoped Kaiba would be quick...Yami's feather was very important to him.

Kaiba turned the feather around in his hands, examining it from all angles. He ran a finger up and down its length, and seemed to deliberately prick a finger on the feather's tip, just to make certain of its' sharpness. All the while, Kaiba's face held a closed-off expression...Yuugi doubted that even Mokuba would know what it was that Kaiba was thinking about as he looked at the feather.

Eventually, Kaiba handed the feather back to Yuugi, who returned the makeshift necklace to its' place around his neck. The only thing Yuugi could say for certain was that Kaiba was disturbed and trying not to show it.

"So?" Jonouchi piped up when the silence dragged on, "Do you finally get it, or what?"

Kaiba threw a glare at Jonouchi before he answered.

"Your story is _highly_ improbable," Kaiba said flatly, "And I still retain my doubts on most of your key points. However, joining you three on this escapade of yours will be beneficial to the personal situation of Mokuba and myself. That is the only reason I have even considered it. Do I make myself clear?"

(**That is all we could ask for**) Yuugi signed.

Yuugi's awkward embarrassment at using such a formal tone was washed away in relief when Kaiba nodded at him in reply. Kaiba did so calmly, even - a good sign. It was kind of obvious that they were pushing their luck by staying near Mokuba's volatile older brother.

If they just managed to keep on Kaiba's good side...which seemed basically identical to Kaiba's indifferent side...then maybe things wouldn't be too bad after all.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	12. Power now all to droplets turned

...If anyone remembers what I said about the PS2, then you should already know what took this update so long.

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

It was obvious that something bad was going on when a pair of the demon guards removed him from the dangling cage. Yami was under no illusions that this would be a pleasant situation for himself, either; Bakura had given him an almost sympathetic look, a sure sign of impending doom.

That in mind, Yami did his best to break away from the demons pulling him out of the room. No longer confined to a tiny cage, the Ban-Ile was free to lash out with both wings. Despite being vastly outmatched, desperation gave Yami an edge. More of the demons had to come and assist their fellows before Yami was moved very far. Once he was pinned and helpless in their claws, Yami had to resist the urge to continue trying to fight his way to freedom. Resist it he did, however: if something as unpleasant as he feared was about to happen to him, Yami knew, facing it when already injured would do him no good at all.

The guards dragged him to a room that was very dark. It felt like they had pulled him into some lifeless cavern, deep underneath the ground. Despite the fact that the room was quite spacious, Yami struggled against the claustrophobia that threatened to creep over him. He had a vague sense that this room was specifically designed to bring out just such a reaction...

It was no help to his mood when the demons pushed him in between two thick posts. Before the Ban-Ile could try and make a break for it, heavy lead shackles were snapped into place on Yami's wrists and ankles, binding him between the posts on lengths of short lead chain. Then the demons left, moving quickly...as if _they_ had no more wish than he did to be in this room any longer than necessary. A few more alarm bells went off inside Yami's head at that thought.

Standing as straight as he could with the heavy lead chains weighing him down, Yami took deep, even breaths, doing his best to calm himself down and ease his rapidly fraying nerves. He had to last through this...there were no other options...he simply had to...

A voice emerged out of the darkness, breaking through Yami's thoughts instantly.

"Ah," said the voice, "The dear little Ban-Ile named Yami has graciously chosen to visit at long last..."

It was a female voice that Yami did not recognize at all. At least he had the meager consolation that that traitorous bitch Anzu wasn't here to see this. But where had the voice come from? In the darkness, it almost seemed as if that voice could have come from anywhere...another trick on the senses, cheap but effective.

"Ooh," the voice purred on, "And I do so wish this meeting had been so much sooner...you Ban-Ile always have such _pretty_ little wings..."

A heavy hand landed on Yami's left wing. Yami froze in shock.

Much to his increasing alarm, the hand now resting on his wing started to move. It was tracing a line up along the edge of his wing...gritting his teeth and suppressing a shudder, Yami tried to see if he could distract this demon. Most female demons had enormous egos, which might be turned towards one's advantage.

"What do you want from me, demon?"

Yami did his best to keep his voice steady and free of emotion. Along with having enormous egos, female demons were notoriously sadistic. Riding the edge of this she-demon's humor was going to be the only method to keep himself mostly intact during this encounter.

That was the way things went: male demons were only dangerous, because they were stupid. Female demons, on the other hand, were vicious beings...cruelty and wickedness required intelligence, and that they had in spades. There was only one exception to this rule in all of demonkind - and thank the gods that _that_ one was still sealed away.

There was a wave of warm, fetid breath on his ear as the voice murmured '_tsk tsk_' at him. Along with the hand still moving on his wing, it was disturbing enough that this time Yami couldn't hold back a full-body shudder.

"Aren't you a _suspicious_ little fellow," the she-demon crooned into his ear.

The clawed hand reached his wingtip. Teasing the feathers on the end for a moment, the hand moved back along the length of the wing, caressing it a little more firmly.

"So suspicious...so feisty...someone might believe that you had something to hide with an attitude like that..."

The she-demon's breath was lower now, on his neck...as if she couldn't wait to sink her fangs into his throat. Then there was the feel of the hand still moving on his wing...the combination was such that Yami was beginning to feel physically ill. Wings, by design, were incredibly sensitive to stimuli - they had to be, for any sort of controlled flight to be possible. And anything remotely approaching THIS sort of contact was usually regulated by heavy taboos. What was happening now was just - just _sick_...no doubt the point.

"You've cost us quite a few spawn over the years, little Ban-Ile..."

While the voice retained that sickening croon and purr, the hand on his wing stopped its' disturbing motions. Before Yami had a chance to feel relieved by this, the hand moved to the joint of the wing, gripping it tightly.

Claws sank in, forcing their way between feathers while ignoring the cuts from the edges. Beyond that layer, the skin was thin and soft, and Yami was unable to keep from hissing at the sharp pain that the claws' unimpeded points caused.

"How _rude_ of you...murdering my daughters' spawn! And bringing me no gift nor offering..."

The voice wasn't crooning anymore. There was still some purr to it, though, that gave a satisfied undertone to the words. The she-demon's satisfaction was most likely due to how Yami had gasped when the claws inbedded in his wing started to _twist_ -

"Such rudeness, and in the presence of a _Hive-Queen_...such a foolish little Ban-Ile you are..."

All of the fainter and fainter hopes for safety that Yami possessed evaporated in an instant, mind-numbing fear rising to fill their empty places. Hells, it would HAVE to be a Hive-Queen, wouldn't it!

Hive-Queens were some of the most dangerous demons ever to exist. They were the highest ranking female demons, wives to the dreadful Lord of the entire demon race. Other female demons could be bargained with, even in this sort of situation, because they desired to increase their status enough to be made Hive-Queens themselves.

Hive-Queens possessed no such concerns, which made them nightmares pure and simple.

"You used to have quite a treasure, little Ban-Ile," the Hive-Queen's voice purred in his ear, "I wonder...wouldn't it make such a wonderful present? That golden glimmering sweetness...you do understand what it is I mean..."

Yami did. It all went back to the pendant. It always went back to the pendant. No wonder the Hive-Queen was nearly panting with eagerness, the pendant was the key to _everything_.

As that realization sunk in, something like a wave of calm settled over him. And in this sudden clear state, Yami felt almost disgusted with how he'd been reacting; even if every rumor of the interrogations performed by these most elite she-demons had proven tame in comparison to the real thing.

At the moment, though, Yami somehow knew that nothing that happened next would matter. The pendant was absolutely safe whether or not the Hive-Queen broke or killed him. He'd seen to that well enough. And though Yami couldn't pinpoint exactly what the strange feeling that that thought generated was, but it was a heady sensation...maybe this was what insanity felt like?

If he lived through this, he'd _have_ to compare notes with Bakura.

Taking a deep breath, Yami chose his next words carefully. Since this was pretty much a lose-lose situation anyway...

"Go away," Yami said, his tone distant and clinical, "Stupid, overgrown bat."

The claws holding Yami's wing joint moved. In an instant, Yami's wing was bending in the opposite direction then it had ever been meant to. If there was one thing that was _guaranteed_ to set off violence from any female demon, mocking them straight to their faces was it.

The pain was raw and roared through his head, and Yami's other wing began flapping wildly in response. It moved without his direction, the nerves misfiring as his body attempted to fight back and escape from his attacker all at once. Unfortunately, Yami's right wing only beat air, and with the other clenched in the Hive-Queen's claws, there was no chance for flight.

Trying to move on the ground was no use either. The short lengths of the heavy chains kept Yami squarely rooted to one spot. On top of that, the Hive-Queen took this opportunity to seize Yami's right arm and wrench it behind him, twisting it in a way that sent even more pain wreaking havoc through his slim frame.

Struggling vainly against that awful grip, Yami could hear the Hive-Queen's voice. It sounded almost faint and distant, drowned out as it was by the pain.

"I'll ask you nicely once, Ban-Ile. The Key! _Where is the Key!_"

Grimacing, Yami forced out a response.

"Don't - have it!"

"I know that," the Hive-Queen snapped, sounding angry now, "Tell me who does! Tell me where you hid the Key!"

"I'd be dead - cold and - and buried in the _ground_ before I would ever tell you _anything!_"

There was a moment's pause. When the Hive-Queen spoke again, her voice was contemptuous and cold.

"Pity."

_CRACK._

Yami cried out as the bones of his wing snapped under the Hive-Queen's grasp. Clawed hands moved along the wing, which now burned with fire at the slightest of motions, settling on a new grip.

"This is your last chance...tell me, and I may decide not rip you into pieces..."

The Hive-Queen's voice was a sing-song now, taunting him. Filled with a level of pain that he had never realized existed, Yami felt as if the room around him was slowly spinning. That was a bad sign...but even though he was out of it, Yami still felt like laughing. As if he'd fall for such a stupid trick!

An indignant snarl from the Hive-Queen alerted Yami to the fact that he _might_ have just laughed aloud.

There was a sudden irresistable pull on his broken wing...for an instant, Yami's vision went white. Agony spiked through him, making the earlier pain seem more of a dull ache by comparison.

When Yami returned to himself, he discovered that he was sprawled awkwardly on the floor. His right wing was pressed painfully close against one of the pillars, which Yami was slumped against, while his left wing lay spread and limp, bending in directions it should not be bending and unresponsive when he tried to make it move.

"Such a feisty one you are," the Hive-Queen said from somewhere above him, once again crooning.

"A pity...you had to be so stubborn...I would have killed you swiftly if you had just been a good little Ban-Ile and simply _told_ me what I wanted..."

Yami tensed, the implications of that starting to run through his mind. Before he was given time to consider them further, the Ban-Ile heard the distinctive sound of a whip being cracked, and caught the scent of fire.

The world was fire.

0

0

Yuugi couldn't think of any reason why he could have woken up now. It was dark and quiet, the others all asleep...there was nothing to wake anyone up, yet awake he was. A faint chill raced up and down Yuugi's spine, before fading as if it had never been. Hopefully that wasn't a bad omen...Yuugi thought about trying to get back to sleep, but for some reason he doubted that he could.

At the moment, their group was en-route to Hong Kong on a small jet owned by Kaiba. The group now consisted of himself, Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Kaiba. Just before things were finalized, Mai had abruptly begged off coming along with them. When met with protests, Mai had thrown out several reasons why she couldn't leave town. They were good reasons, and perfectly reasonable: for starters, Mai's job at the school would probably not last through a sudden, unannounced vacation.

So now Yuugi and Jonouchi were left to carry out the search for the artifacts. Hopefully, this search would lead them to Yami. Yuugi hoped Yami was alright...even if he still wasn't really sure why he felt this concerned about someone he had barely known at all.

Snores from the next seat over testified that Jonouchi remained happily asleep. A few rows behind Yuugi and Jonouchi were the seats that Mokuba and Kaiba had picked out. Hong Kong wasn't that far away, but their group had left in the middle of the night, and so they had decided to get some sleep on the plane. Peeking back through the seats, Yuugi could almost see the brothers Kaiba.

Mokuba was asleep as well...but Kaiba seemed to be awake. In fact, Kaiba also seemed to be working on something. When their group had first boarded the plane, Kaiba had pulled a laptop computer out of his briefcase and started typing. It appeared that even now, hours later, Kaiba was still hard at work. Now that he was aware of it, Yuugi could hear the sound of keys being tapped.

If Kaiba was busy, he most certainly wouldn't be pleased at being interrupted. Sighing to himself, Yuugi turned toward the window and stared outside.

It was either very late at night or very early in the morning, depending on your view of the matter, but it wasn't that dark outside. The moon was full, shining brightly. There were only a few scattered clouds in the sky, which also seemed to glow in the moonlight, and Yuugi was certain that the wide sea far below the plane was sparkling in the moon's light as well.

In short, the view was awesome.

Basking in this awesome view, Yuugi let his thoughts wander. He wondered what it would be like to soar through the night sky that he was watching, like a bird...or maybe a Ban-Ile. The images Yuugi's mind came up with were so vivid and realistic that Yuugi almost forgot that he was just a simple human being on a plane, and that he wasn't truly outside and flying through the night skies under his own power...

0

0

Anzu the she-demon landed in a deserted and ignored alley somewhere in the depths of the human city of Domino. For a moment after her landing, Anzu only stood there, taking in the sounds and smells of her surroundings. Almost a week's worth of hunting in this city, and now she was back in it again, bound to stay as long as her task took her.

It had been so long since Anzu had spent so much time in one human city...or even in any human city. Back then, what was considered a city was nothing compared to one like this. Anzu usually tried not to think about why she knew enough to be able to make a comparison.

She tried not to think about it, and denied it whenever the disgusting thought arose; a filthy dark secret of her own creation.

Once, Anzu had been as simple and weak as the humans of this city.

Back then...back then...

...Back then, Anzu had been human too.

'If I was one of _them_,' Anzu hissed at herself, 'It was NOT because I was simple. I_ knew_ there was better to be had...that's why I'm alive and strong today!'

For this task, however, Anzu would need to be human once again. A demon was too conspicuous in places like these; dumb as they were, humans weren't THAT stupid. Anzu had performed such tasks like these before, and was already concentrating on the necessary powers.

Because she had been human once before, Anzu possessed the ability to shed her demonic appearance and most of the innate power it gave her. This allowed her to mingle with the disgusting masses of humanity whenever she wished to, which certainly wasn't often. It always felt dirty and wrong to do so, but at the moment Anzu had no choice if she wanted to succeed.

Once the transformation was complete, Anzu found something to check her reflection in. Dull human eyes, dull human hair, dull human clothing...why was humanity such a cursed, boring race was beyond her. Anzu could revert to her true form whenever she wished, which was a bit of comfort after seeing her beauty vanish into ordinary human features. It was disturbing to recall her early life, when she had been trapped in this form with no hope of escape...thank the shadows that those days were dead and dust behind her.

Steeling her resolve, Anzu walked towards the end of the alley to begin the hunt. Yami had been with a few humans when she'd captured him...they were the best place to start...

0

0

Hong Kong was a very interesting place to visit, Yuugi would admit. Somehow, though, wandering around the city sight-seeing seemed like such a waste of time.

It wasn't like there was anything else to do, unfortunately. Until they figured out what site the slab with the Ban-Ile script had come from, there was nothing to do but sightsee. The only other option was to stare at the walls of the rooms of their hotel.

Kaiba, surprisingly, was organizing the site search for them. Yuugi wondered if Mokuba had said something to make his brother so cooperative. If Mokuba had, Yuugi hadn't heard it. Yuugi had a funny feeling that Kaiba was only helping them out to humor them.

Unburdened with the worries Yuugi was fretting over, Mokuba and Jonouchi were enjoying the sights of Hong Kong. Jonouchi was enjoying them at an especially high volume, which was probably the cause behind Kaiba suddenly announcing that they were all going back to the hotel.

"Se-to," Mokuba whined, unwilling to miss a single sight, "That's not cool - there's so much stuff left to see, can't we keep going please?"

"Yeah, don't be such a pain in the ass, Kaiba!" Jonouchi protested, "What kinda example are ya setting for your brother, doing that?"

"We can see one more place at least, right?" Mokuba piped up, seeing the warning signs the instant they appeared on his brother's features.

If Yuugi had been capable, he would have done something similar. And if looks could kill, Jonouchi would have been roasted alive by Kaiba's glare. Mokuba was just able to distract and defuse Kaiba in time to avoid the potential fight. Kaiba looked down at his brother, possibly torn between his own annoyance and a desire to make his sibling happy.

Eventually, Kaiba nodded.

"One more place."

"GREAT!" Mokuba cried, "And I know the perfect place to go! Follow me!"

Mokuba lead the way as if he had been born and raised in this city. Kaiba had lead their little tour group with the same sort of ease, at least until now. Were Kaibas born with some kind of innate sense of direction or something?

"Where're ya taking us, Mokuba?" Jonouchi demanded after a few dozen blocks and turns.

"It's really cool! There's this awesome place called Bird Street, and it's really famous! Hurry up you guys, you're falling behind!"

It wasn't much longer before they arrived at their destination. It was obvious from the start that Bird Street certainly lived up to its name. Most of the space was taken up by cages of various sizes, filled with birds of various species. A few looked to be fairly exotic. There was almost no room to move around the myriad bird cages, and the narrow street was filled with noise.

While Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Kaiba were confronted with birdsong, Yuugi was hearing something _very_ different. Yuugi had almost let his discovery during his and Mokuba's kidnapping fade from his mind. It had been really strange and freakish, after all. But the roar of hundreds of voices that Yuugi was hearing was not something that could be denied.

((**Trading for human-dirt! Human-dirt! Nice human-dirt, is good!**))

((**Mine! Gimme mine! Gimme!**))

((**Stay way! Mine! Stay way!**))

((**Food! Human-dirt, gimme food! Gimme food now!**))

((**You is beaking!**))

In one particularly large cage, near where Yuugi and the others had entered Bird Street, were four large doves. Their heads were bobbing and their wings were fluttering in unison. Those motions were in time to the song they were singing. It sounded like the doves were singing a ranchy drinking song, but it was mostly in Chinese so Yuugi didn't understand it very well...

From his unique perspective, Yuugi thought it was kind of eerie how no one else seemed to notice anything strange. The voices were so _loud_...

"You okay, Yuugi?" Jonouchi asked.

The blond teen had seen his friend's distress. Jonouchi was naturally concerned for his friend, even if there was no way for him to know what was really bothering Yuugi.

(**Yes fine. Very loud**) Yuugi signed.

"Yeah, all these birds in once place is kinda overwhelming, ain't it?" Jonouchi said sympathetically, "Ah, you'll get used to it. Some of them look pretty awesome...it sucks to be broke, but maybe Kaiba would get us one..."

While the blond wandered away, musing over this idea, Yuugi decided to get a better look as well. Whether or not one possessed the ability to hear and understand the birds of Bird Street, this was still a very interesting place to visit. Yuugi saw many interesting birds, some inside very oddly designed cages, and most paid him no mind at all. He was pretty sure it was only his imagination, but a few of the birds seemed to _stare_ at him when Yuugi passed their cages.

Yuugi paused by a large cage that was surprisingly empty. There was only one bird inside, a small one with blue and gray plumage. Yuugi's Chinese really wasn't anything spectacular, but he could just barely understand the label on the cage. This bird was a '_Blue_' something, imported from America.

The little bird was preening, but it pulled its face out of its feathers when it realized that Yuugi was looking at it. It glared up at Yuugi, indignation puffing up the pointed crest on top of its head.

((**Shitty dirt-hopper!**)) the bird screeched at Yuugi, ((**Go way! Me no peck for dirt-hoppers!**))

This bird had a bad temper, and didn't seem particularly fond of humans either. This became even more evident when a passerby bumped into the strange bird's cage. The blow knocked the cage off the table it was sitting on. Moving quickly, Yuugi managed to catch the cage before it hit the ground, and set it gently back on the table. Inside the cage, the bird was fluttering around, cursing enough to make a grizzled sailor blush.

Hoping to calm the bird down, Yuugi glanced around to make certain no one would be close enough to hear him speak.

(((**I'm sure it was an accident,**))) Yuugi said.

The bird stopped in mid-curse. It stared at Yuugi in flat astonishment for about minute, then exploded into confused outrage at this strange turn of events.

((**You dirt-hopper can TALK!**)) shrieked the bird, ((**Shitty beaking! When can stupid dirt-hopper speak flyertongue?**))

(((**I don't why I can talk like this**,))) Yuugi told the bird, (((**I always could**.)))

The bird's confusion lasted a bit longer. Then it cocked its head, seemingly recalling something.

((**Me...me heard of dirt that speak flyertongue**,)) the bird said next, ((**Is called Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly. Is you?**))

(((**I've been called that, yes. I prefer to be called Yuugi, though,**))) Yuugi replied.

((**You is that! Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly is being sung of to all flyers! No dirt ever speak flyertongue!**))

Some of the other birds nearby had picked up on this conversation. Excited cries of ((**It the Flyertongue-Dirt! It the Flyertongue-Dirt!**)) were racing up and down Bird Street. None of the humans in the area seemed to notice a thing.

((**You way far way**,)) the bird continued, ((**You is from Fish Islands, why you here?**))

(((**I'm looking for someone**,))) Yuugi admitted, (((**Uh...so, why are you here...?**)))

((**Oh, me sorry for being rude on that**,)) the bird said with a quick dip of its head, ((**Me name is Kikki**.))

Inside Yuugi's mind, the word 'Kikki' translated itself into normal words. The translation went along the lines of '_High Crags and Low Valleys make No Difference for Flying_', which Yuugi figured meant something that was probably significant if you were a bird.

((**And me is here because me was being stupid**,)) Kikki continued, looking somewhat embarrassed.

(((**Oh**,))) Yuugi said.

Yuugi was sorry he asked, not wanting to bring up a sore subject. Still, Kikki seemed to feel an obligation to explain himself more clearly.

((**We is always knowing '_Hanging seeds you no eat, and you is always being free_', but old flock was all so so hungry. Didn't know dirt-hoppers be so fast**,)) Kikki sighed, ((**Me is last of old flock...me be eaten if me flew home...but me no want to be in shitty-dirt-hopper-cage no more! Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly, you is flyer, you gotta help!**))

"Oi! Yuugi!"

Yuugi turned away from Kikki's cage as Jonouchi hurried over. Trailing behind the blonde teen were Mokuba and Kaiba, the latter looking fairly disgruntled.

"Seen anything interesting over here?" Jonouchi asked, "They got some really weird-looking birds down near the other end...wow, that one looks pretty weird too!"

Jonouchi pointed at Kikki. Kikki looked the blonde over and was not impressed.

((**Shitty dirt!**)) Kikki yelled.

Jonouchi, unaware that he had just been insulted, returned to his original train of thought.

"Anyway, so Kaiba's being real generous an' letting us get a bird! Me and Mokuba didn't really see one we wanted, though...but if you like one, Yuugi, you can get it! Ain't that great? Kaiba's not such a bastard after all."

Yuugi wondered if he should bring Kaiba's immediate presence to Jonouchi's attention, then decided that it wouldn't be a good idea. Kaiba looked angry enough already, and Jonouchi had honestly meant that to be a compliment...

(**If it is not too much trouble**) Yuugi signed, (**I do like this one**)

As an annoyed Kaiba dealt with the purchasing issues, Yuugi inwardly sighed in relief. This was a lucky break; the only other idea Yuugi could think of for helping Kikki out had been to just open the cage and let the bird fly free. That would have caused a lot of trouble, considering how much Kaiba was irritably paying for him. As soon as Kikki was officially all paid for, Yuugi reached over and pulled open the door to the cage. Ignoring the protests of the bird seller, Yuugi backpedaled as Kikki immediately darted out for freedom.

Making a quick circle of the group in the air, Kikki settled on Yuugi's shoulder, all the while looking very pleased with himself.

((**Me like you, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly**,)) Kikki chirped into Yuugi's ear, ((**Me think me stay with you flock for while!**))

A few other birds from the nearby cages began raising a fuss, trying to solicit Yuugi's help in gaining their own freedom. The fact that Kaiba was not about to buy any of them any more birds, as well as the wave of verbal abuse that Kikki instantly began directing towards those other birds, managed to squelch Yuugi's initial impulse of helping them out then and there.

((**Lazy fat ones no need helping**,)) Kikki insisted, ((**They no leave easy food even if Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly take way all cages ever. Me no let lazy fat ones bother you!**))

Yuugi had the vague suspicion that while Kaiba had paid for a bird, Yuugi had just gotten a self-proclaimed bodyguard. Trying not to laugh at the mental image that this idea brought to his mind, Yuugi followed Kaiba, Mokuba, and Jonouchi back to their hotel.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	13. in the temple of Arche Koeln

And now without further ado...or anymore problems from the site's editing program...

((_grumblemuttergrumble_))

I give unto you, my readers, the next chapter!

...Well, don't you all applaud at once or anything.

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

They spent a quiet night at the hotel. Jonouchi, apparently possessing a rather ravenous appetite, had plenty of fun with the room service. Yuugi was left wondering if Jonouchi was really that hungry, or if this was ploy of the blond's to annoy Kaiba - Kaiba was the one paying for everything, after all. Bright and early the next morning, they finally received news on the search for the source of the Ban-Ile slab.

Saying that the site was 'near' Hong Kong was a bit of an exaggeration; it took a two hour drive to get there. The site wasn't currently being excavated at the moment, which was probably why Kaiba had so easily managed to arrange a tour of it for their group. After the long car ride, only Yuugi was managing to keep his enthusiasm going strong. Kikki and Mokuba weren't particularly interested in an old hole in the ground, Kaiba had never been interested to begin with, and Jonouchi had found a two-hour car ride with Kaiba particularly taxing.

When they piled out of the car, the site's manager was waiting to greet them. He was a small man, and kept wringing his hands together anxiously. The manager seemed especially intimidated by Kaiba, but gamely introduced himself and welcomed them to the site in clipped Japanese.

Kaiba cut the man off in mid-sentence.

"Have you arranged the private tour that I wanted?"

"Oh - of course, Mr. Kaiba!" said the site manager, "I myself will take you and your group personally around the site! I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful it is that you and your esteemed companions have taken an interest in our findings. We're planning to expand our excavation very soon, which is why we have applied for funding - ah, but of course you already knew that. Please forgive my ramblings, Mr. Kaiba...here, let me just show you what we have done so far..."

Thus followed a lengthy and uninteresting lecture of the site and its history. The site manager seemed determined not to miss a single detail. It was slightly obvious that if the man wanted Kaiba to help with the site's funding issue, he would need to do something incredibly more impressive than this boring tour. Unfortunately, the site manager was too caught up in his own nervous flustering to catch on to how unimpressed Kaiba was with him.

It was only when the manager lead their group to one of the large tents set up nearby that things began getting interesting.

"Over here are many of the relics we have discovered in this site. This area is surprisingly full of wondrous artifacts. The lack of any human or animal remains seems to suggest that this area was used as a neutral trading area between groups that resided elsewhere. Ah, through here, please," the manager waved them through the entrance, "Our resident staff has nicknamed this the '_Tent of Doom_', but you know archeologists..."

"Why's it called the tent of Doom?" Mokuba piped up.

The site manager seemed startled by the question, having forgotten mostly about the others in their group aside from Kaiba. The man recovered fairly quickly.

"Ah, well, the local farmers of this area claim that this area is under a curse," the site manager explained, "And so, since the curse would supposedly fall on those who disturb the area and remove its treasures, our staff nicknamed this tent the '_Tent of Doom_'. Of course, it's all superstitious nonsense."

Mokuba lost what little interest that the word 'Doom' had awakened in him about halfway through that small lecture. Yuugi felt sorry for the site manager; without any interest from Mokuba, there was zero chance of Kaiba providing any funding whatsoever.

Inside the tent, they were confronted by several long tables. The tables were covered in bits of stone, carefully catalogued for study. Most of the bits of stone were in unnatural shapes for stone, and here and there Yuugi could see fragments of what he was beginning to easily recognize as more of that odd Ban-Ile script. However, the script was far from complete, and it was all faded from time and weather. Even if it had all been intact, Yuugi suddenly realized, he certainly had no way of reading any of it. When they had planned this out, Jonouchi and himself had been counting on Mai's help in all things Ban-Ile.

Kikki, still perched on Yuugi's shoulder, peered over at the nearest artifacts. The bird seemed to nod to himself, before quietly chirping ((**Me no think Scratchies still round anyplace now. But here is all scratchie-words...**))

"Have you discovered any more complete relics then the ones here?"

Kaiba had cut the site manager off in the middle of his explanation of the organization system the site was using, and it took the poor man another minute to recover.

"Yes," the manager explained, "There was one fully intact tablet. It was quite informative. Unfortunately, we are no longer in possession of it. Ah...it was requested by the IFAU for their collection...in exchange, they are assisting us in our grant. The information we learned from the tablet is still here at the site...I shall fetch a copy of the results for you to review, Mr. Kaiba. Please excuse me..."

Once the site manager had scurried out of the tent, Jonouchi spoke up.

"I know I've heard of that If-ow thing before somewhere..."

Yuugi turned, and seeing that he was the only one present that actually knew about the IFAU, he hurried to explain.

(**International Foundation of Archeological Understanding**) Yuugi signed, (**A big international group that tries to support digs and other things. They are always adding things to their big collection. Grandpa calls them hopeful well-meaning interfering busybodies**)

"Yeah, Gramps was the one I heard it from that time," Jonouchi agreed, eyes lighting up, "He'd know all about that, wouldn't he?"

Jonouchi then translated Yuugi's explanation on the IFAU for Mokuba, who'd missed it completely. Although Mokuba was showing signs of recognizing one or two words in sign language, he still needed a translation to understand what he was seeing. Kaiba already knew sign language, but even if he didn't, the elder Kaiba would never admit to it. It wouldn't have been surprising at all to find out that Kaiba knew at least a dozen languages.

The manager re-entered, holding an armful of papers and folders. Finding a spot on one of the tables to spread these out, the man stood back and proudly invited them to take a look for themselves. In with the papers were photographs, and Yuugi recognized the slab instantly. Jonouchi and Mokuba, who hadn't seen it, were engrossed by the photographs. Yuugi looked at the other papers. Here was a description of where the slab had been found in the site, and here was an analysis of the slab itself...it was apparently made of a strange kind of rock not native to this area...or hemisphere.

"I can't make heads or tails of this stupid thing!" Jonouchi groaned, turning one of the photos upside to see if that would make it understandable, "This part looks like it was attacked by crazed pigeons or something - and this part looks like a _dog_ started chewing it!"

Kaiba murmured something derogatory-sounding under his breath in response to the blond's outburst. Jonouchi's head whipped up, looking for the source of the insult. When the blond returned his attention to the photos, culprit undiscovered, Yuugi could see a faint smirk blossom on Kaiba's features. Kikki laughed quietly on Yuugi's shoulder, apparently amused as well.

Ignoring all of this, the site manager began excitedly explaining the discovery.

"The writing is in an entirely unknown form of language, completely unlike any other discovered language of the time period. It took our team months to decipher and translate it. There seem to be three separate accounts. They seem to be describing three separate myths, none of which have ever been discovered before. There are very few surviving written accounts from that time period, you see, which makes this quite a fascinating development."

"Do you have a copy of the translation available?" Kaiba asked, "I cannot stay for much longer...I have a very busy schedule..."

"Certainly! Of course, I won't detain you any further, Mr. Kaiba!"

The site manager looked delighted, apparently thinking that this meant that Kaiba was definitely going to fund their research. A folder of papers shoved into his hands, Kaiba wasted no time in leading them back to the car.

Even before the site had vanished into the distance, a look from Mokuba had Kaiba reluctantly making arrangements for a donation to the site.

0

0

_When the world was young, when there still little difference between the land, the sea, and the sky, there were seven wells that sank down, deep into the ground. Inside each of the seven wells was a different thing. The wells were named for each thing: they were the Well of Air, the Well of Wind, the Well of Clouds, the Well of Thunderbolts, the Well of Raindrops, the Well of Snow, and the Well of Hail._

_There were almost no creatures living anywhere in the world before this time, as the sky was empty. Then _Bai'n'tou_ came into the world from his wars in the Outside Land._

Bai'n'tou _held a hammer in his left hand, and a sword in his right hand. A plate of armor guarded his breast, and a strong shield hung from his back. Hidden behind the shield were his bow and arrows, and hanging from his belt were his daggers. Around his neck hung a disk infused with magic from before the world was ever created._

Bai'n'tou _came to the place of the seven wells. After fighting many battles with the monsters of the Outside Land, _Bai'n'tou _was thirsty and desired to drink. The seven wells had much water down in their depths; however, _Bai'n'tou _could not reach the water in any well because the other things were in his way. Almost maddened with his great thirst, _Bai'n'tou _thought on how best to reach the waters. Deciding that the other things should first be removed, _Bai'n'tou _did so_.

_He slammed his mighty hammer into the Well of Air, sending all of the air into the sky with the power of his swing._

_He cut the Well of Wind with his sharp sword, and the wind roared into the sky with a howl of pain._

_He beat the Well of Clouds with his great shield, and the clouds rose slowly into the sky, hanging low._

_He shot his swift arrows into the Well of Thunderbolts, and the thunderbolts sprang into the sky even more swiftly to escape them._

_He called his powerful magic into the Well of Raindrops, and the raindrops fled to hide inside the clouds._

_He slashed the Well of Snow with his glimmering daggers, and the snow rose to the highest reaches of the sky to escape them._

_He challenged the Well of Hail, and when the hail could not pierce his strong armor it rose to join the snow in the highest reaches of the sky._

_Once _Bai'n'tou _had done this, he drank from each well in turn. From each well came water of a different shade of the color of water, and each one's water was pure and good. In thanks for the water, _Bai'n'tou_ made offerings into each well. He offered the wells the blood of his hands and the hairs from his head to each well in turn. When each offering touched the waters of the well, a new being was created._

_Seven new beings there were, each proud of bearing and glorious of complexion. These new beings were each gifted with a pair of shining wings. The wings of each being glowed with bright color, each color different from the others. _Bai'n'tou _himself had no wings, able to travel wherever he wished without difficulty. However, the seven beings were also born of the waters of the Wells of Sky, and so the sky would forever remain their domain._

Bai'n'tou _gave the seven beings his blessing, before departing for his wars in the Outside Land. Those seven beings, born with the knowledge of _Bai'n'tou's _blood and formed from the mixture of the Waters of the Wells of the Sky and _Bai'n'tou's_ hairs, gave themselves the name _Ban-Ile _to honor_ Bai'n'tou _forever._

_Long was the time of peace and tranquility after the creation of the first _Ban-Ile. _Each of the first _Ban-Ile_ took for himself a mate from the spirits and creatures that roamed the world when the sky was filled. Soon, the seven tribes of the_ Ban-Ile _were so numerous that they blocked the skies with their bright wings._

_And that was all before the dark times came._

0

_A hole was opened in the ever-lit sky of the world. From the hole came many new things, including all the shadows that now live in the world. The largest of these shadows took residence within the very sky and became part of it. That was how the first night was born._

_The most dangerous of these new things were terrible beasts. The beasts were foul and cruel. They had no language of their own, and when they came into the world, the beasts used the language of the world to call themselves _Mi'cho'tziplat,_ the Children of the Abyss. Very soon because of how terrible these beasts were, they were only called demons._

_When the hole in the sky of the world closed, the _Ban-Ile _and other living creatures of the world fought against the demons that remained in the world. With the entrance of the shadows in the world came other new terrors, including sicknesses and death. The demons took delight in spreading these terrors, and so the _Ban-Ile _moved to destroy the terrible beasts and spare the world from them. This was to be called the First War of the World, for before this there had only been peace._

_Over many long generations and years, the _Ban-Ile _and demons fought, each striving to eliminate and destroy the other. The entire world suffered, as all creatures dwindled. The_ Ban-Ile_ tribes and demons suffered the greatest hardships in their war, and eventually there came a time when the fighting stopped. Because neither side had enough strength left to destroy the other without suffering destruction as well, there was a strange peace between them._

_One should note that at this time, the fledgling race of _Humanity_ was beginning to unravel the mysteries of magic. With the aid of peace, _Humanity_ in its' youth grew powerful. Soon there could be easily found human sorcerers who could subdue the most ferocious of demons and defeat the strongest of _Ban-Ile.

_Such powerful human sorcerers were needed greatly when the Second Darkness came upon the world. The hole in the sky of the world opened once again. The only thing that entered the world were many demons, their numbers untouched by the First War of the World. Amongst those demons was their most dreadful master._

_Ulgoth, the Destroyer, the Terrible, was named _Krii'tziplat,_ the Lord of the Abyss. Ulgoth and eight of his sinister wives entered the world and took command of the remaining demons. Ulgoth's forces grew stronger at an alarming rate, as Ulgoth's wives and daughters gave birth to more and more demon warriors. With his hordes of demons warriors, Ulgoth began the final destruction of the seven tribes, wiping even their memory from the face of known existence._

_As a final, desperate resort, the leaders of the seven tribes made solemn pacts with the human nations. Against the human forces, who had grown nearly to outnumber even the demons, Ulgoth's conquest was stayed._

_In secret, the seven greatest human sorcerers conspired with the greatest warriors of each _Ban-Ile _tribe to end Ulgoth's conquest forever. In the end, Ulgoth was defeated and cast back into the hole. The hole was sealed with human magic to prevent Ulgoth's escape back into the world. The magic was held in place by seven magical items._

_There was a danger in this method of sealing: if one who bore a key to the seal entered the hole, that one would be drawn into the world where demons come from, the _Abyss. _Also, if the seven items ever fell into Ulgoth's clutches, not only would the _Lord of the Abyss_ be freed, but he would also be invincible and reign in the world forever._

_Knowing this, Ulgoth's evil wives, who had escaped his fate, sent his children out to find and take those seven items. The seven human sorcerers and their descendants were hunted down mercilessly by the demon swarms. In desperation, for they could no longer protect the seven items, the sorcerers appealed to their _Ban-Ile _comrades for aid. Each of the seven tribes took charge of an item, hiding them in secret places and telling no one of their whereabouts._

_Sadly, the demons soon discovered this fact. Ulgoth's wives then sent their children out to finally destroy the last remnants of the _Ban-Ile._ Within a short time, only small, scattered groups remained to continue guarding the secret places of the seven items._

_When the tribes are gone, the knowledge of the seven items shall be lost forever. When that is so and the threat of demons is finally ceased, the items shall be recovered and the Lord of the Abyss shall finally be destroyed. For success, here lies the only path to the least of these seven treasured items._

0

_"**Where land reaches out to pierce the sky**_

**_O Wingless ones, now you must fly!_**

**_A man sits forever here_**

**_Look well and with thought_**

_**Where wisdom is sought.**"_

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	14. Returns to nothing,

Happy New Year, folks! No matter how late my well-wishing may be coming...eh heh heh...

So here we go, the next chapter of my fic. Hope you enjoy it!

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

"Yikes," Jonouchi groaned, "This might be a little harder than I thought. We don't got much to go on here, do we?"

Mokuba, who was sitting across the table from the blond, nodded agreement.

"The only thing that's even a clue is that tiny riddle thing at the bottom," Mokuba pointed out, "The rest is like an old history legend or something."

"And not about something good that happened back then, either," Jonouchi added with a shudder.

While Mokuba and Jonouchi went over the translation over and over again, wracking their brains to try and find the solution, Kaiba continued to work on his laptop in the next room, tapping away at the keys and apparently feeling no need to provide any further help on the matter whatsoever.

Yuugi was out on the room's balcony, mulling over what they had learned. Kikki, not wanting to neglect his self-appointed duty towards Yuugi, was outside as well, flying around the balcony to stretch his wings a little.

'_It's almost scary to contemplate_,' Yuugi thought, '_There used to be so many Ban-Ile, and now they're almost all gone. That's all thanks to those demons. Not to mention that that Ulgoth demon, the worst of them all, is only sealed away. If the demons get their hands on the seven artifacts, Ulgoth could escape...that would be horrible_!'

Reaching into his pocket, Yuugi brushed the pendant with a fingertip, finding some comfort in the golden treasure. Unfortunately, this also served to remind Yuugi of why he now possessed such a thing.

'_This pendant must be important_,' Yuugi thought, '_Yami didn't want the demons to get it, even if they did get him. I wonder if it's connected to one of those seven artifacts...yes, that must be it! Yami's tribe would have been guarding one, and that's why the demons were after him. But..._'

Yuugi sighed.

'_Yami's tribe might be all gone now, except for him. Who knows if any of the other Ban-Ile tribes are still around either...not to mention that the demons might have already taken their artifacts. This is just looking worse and worse...and there's probably so much else going on that we don't even know about..._'

((**What you thinky 'bout?**))

The sudden interruption of Kikki's voice startled Yuugi, bringing him out from his meandering thoughts. Kikki was perched on the balcony railing now, watching Yuugi with a curious expression on his face. Knowing for a fact that the others were inside, Yuugi responded.

(((**I was thinking about the Ban-Ile. It's kind of weird, how all this time there was another intelligent race in the world, and no one will ever know since they're almost all gone.**)))

((**You mean for scratchies**,)) Kikki replied, bobbing his head forward, ((**They always here, long long time 'fore all flyers an' all dirts. You is flyer, you don't know? All flyer know 'bout scratchies!**))

(((**They do?**))) Yuugi blinked, (((**Wait, does that mean that birds know all about the Ban-Ile and - and about where all those artifacts are already?**)))

((**You is for crazy beaking, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly!**)) Kikki trilled loudly.

Once Kikki was over his momentary indignation at Yuugi's apparently outrageous suggestion, he explained why it was such an idiotic idea.

((**No flyer know ALL 'bout scratchies! Flyer know best a 'near thing, like food and dirts. You is beaking, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly, you think one flyer know all thing in all world!**))

While Kikki's first few words sent Yuugi's hopes plummeting downward, they rose again when he realized exactly what it was that Kikki was telling him. It was really kind of obvious; no single bird _could_ know everything about the world. Just like with people, though, birds knew their local areas very well, and could probably give all the directions you would ever want if you just asked them...

(((**Kikki, if we went to somewhere else, would you be able to talk to the birds there? Would they help us find what we're looking for?**)))

((**Talking easy**,)) Kikki replied, ((**Flyertongue is what everybody with no shitty-dirt brains is talking. Me talk, you talk, all easy. Getting help, me think you gotta fight. Most loudest be most right, get alla help! It no problem, even for nice flyer like you, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly!**))

0

0

/_...He soared gracefully through the air, amusing himself by going through the low-lying clouds instead of over or around them. Flying was a lot more fun than sitting through another one of Elder Nadda's stupid lectures. Ancient history was so _boring!_ Who in their right mind would want to sit and learn about the dusty and ancient past when there was a whole human city to go spy on?_

_Humans were a lot more entertaining, running around on the ground and doing their strange human dealings. To be perfectly honest, Yami couldn't even imagine how it would feel to live a life completely bound to the ground. At least it was fun trying to figure out what the humans were doing down there, and why they were doing such odd things._

_Ah, and Yami could hear exactly what Old Nadda would say if he heard what Yami's idea of fun consisted of._

'Being one of our race means being above petty desires, as the clouds are above the soil,' _Yami mouthed as he conjured Nadda's creaky, squeaking voice from memory_, 'And furthermore, any contact with the humans is utterly forbidden! When will you realize I'm telling you these things to help you, young fledgling, not because I enjoy listening to the sound of my own voice!'

_Hah! As if anyone could ever _enjoy_ the sound of Old Nadda's voice! It wasn't as if Yami was missing something important by going flying today, either. If today's lecture had been about something that would end up saving his life someday, Kura would have shown up. Kura ALWAYS showed up if the topic was something ultimately useful._

_...Yami didn't really think of that one as a friend, but Kura's sensitivity to how valuable things were was unbelievably accurate. As part of that, sometimes small items in their group would go mysteriously astray, until Kura was finally confronted and forced to produce them...certainly a downside to having an ability like that. Yami was happy enough not to own any such special trait if it meant missing out on compulsive stealing._

_Maybe that was the reason why Old Nadda never seemed happy when Kura chose to come by for a lecture. Even when he came to learn, Kura was never anyone's respectful little student. That half-human girl, Mai, was a much better example of studiousness._

_Ever since joining the tribe after that incident with the senile mage last century, she had become dangerously obsessed with things like ancient history. Yami was certain it was just a human quirk, and so he had humored her when Mai had lectured him about a student's _'responsibility to learn from history in order to better understand the present and future' _or some-such nonsense._

_None of the Elders besides Nadda had kept it secret that there was a whole lot more ancient history for fledglings to learn before they reached their sixth century. As far as Yami was concerned, he would be perfectly happy if he never became what they considered a fully-fledged adult. He liked life just the way it was..._

_Caught up as he was in these thoughts, Yami neglected to pay strict attention to his altitude, and to where he was going. Thus it was that, in the process of going through another low cloud, Yami was caught off-guard by an unusually tall tree that sprang up out of nowhere._

_Snatching at his left wing before the young Ban-Ile could avoid it, the tree knocked Yami out of the air. Completely surprised, Yami lost a dozen feet when he tried to compensate for the impact. This sent him hurtling into a second tree._

_Then it was a wonderfully pain-filled ride of bouncing down a billion tree branches until he finally hit the dirt. Of course, Yami landed head-first._

_While waiting for the nauseating spinning in his head to clear, Yami had plenty of time to think of a many terrible things he wanted to do to a certain kind of plant. Once he was finally able to get up, Yami thought up a whole dozen more ideas to add to that list. This just had to be the densest damn forest the world had ever seen, hadn't it!_

_Looking skywards, Yami groaned at the sight of an intimidating lattice of branches. There was no chance of a ground takeoff here...and these were all straight-lined and smooth-barked, which meant climbing would be impossible as well. Damn it, Old Nadda would be laughing his head off if he could see what misfortune had befallen his lesson-skipping student!_

_There was no other option but to walk to the nearest edge of the forest. Once there, it should be simple to find a clear area. Yami was reasonably certain that he'd passed at least a few such areas while coming this way. They shouldn't be too far away..._

_A strange noise caught Yami's attention. As he turned toward the source, Yami suddenly realized that the birds in the trees around him were eerily silent. Birds were almost never silent around Ban-Ile, even when the Ban-Ile made the same sort of entrance that Yami had just experienced. The only reason for the birds to keep quiet around a Ban-Ile...was if the Ban-Ile was the presence of something dangerous..._

_Yami finished his turn just in time to see something duck out of sight behind a tree. It wasn't fast enough, though, and Yami got a good look at it before it was hidden._

_It was a human female!_/

0

0

Honda rummaged in the dresser drawer, hoping to find what he was looking for before his folks realized what he was up to. He actually had a lot of time to spare, since both his parents were out of the house, but the nature of the item he was searching for made Honda extremely wary. Once he had found the precious bottle, Honda pushed the drawer closed and crept back to his own room.

His dad was going to murder him when he discovered that some of his ultimate-super-secret-100-percent-effective-for-making-women-swoon cologne was gone, but it was really the old man's fault for being so damn possessive of the stuff in the first place, wasn't it?

Besides, even if his dad really did up and kill him, it was going to be totally worth it. For Honda had a date!

The lucky lady was new in town, a beautiful young woman who had succumbed to Honda's irresistible charm. She had sleek and lovely brown hair, large and dazzling eyes, flawless skin, and a rack to kill for. Even Mai, gorgeous as she was, failed to match up to this girl's exquisitely perfect beauty.

Her name was Tea. She was truly an absolute angel and Honda would have bet a million yen that she really had fallen out of Heaven. And out of all the guys in town, he was the lucky one that Tea had chosen. Tea was going out with him today! Normally, Honda's luck was rather poor in the female department, but beautiful Tea had made every woman that had turned him down look pathetic in comparison.

Honda's only regret, as he got ready for his big date, was that Jonouchi and Yuugi weren't around to meet Tea. It would have been awesome to show her off to his two best friends - especially Jonouchi, who'd been a real pain in the ass the last time Honda had struck out with a girl.

Unfortunately, they were long gone. On top of that, Mai had answered exactly none of Honda's oh-so-subtle questions about where Jonouchi and Yuugi might have gone to. Sure, Honda had said it himself - it would be better if he didn't know where his friends had gone - but that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to be curious, did it?

It was probably just as well, anyway. Tea was so wonderfully perfect and beautiful that any red-blooded man would have tried to steal her away. Honda figured that even Yuugi, who didn't seem mature enough to think about girls yet, would have gotten jealous of Honda's good fortune at the first sight of Tea. Knowing Jonouchi, the guy would have probably pulled some idiotic stunt while trying to lure Tea away from Honda. Yeah, actually, he was sure of it.

Honda nodded sagely at his reflection in the mirror. So yeah, it was probably for the best that Jonouchi and Yuugi were gone.

Anzu sat on the park bench, sipping her overly-sweet soda without any interest. She ignored the human boy seated beside her, rambling idiotically about who-knew-what. She also ignored the fact that the majority of his attention was focused on only two things, both of which were situated on her chest.

This admittedly unpleasant situation was deliberate, of course. Nothing kept humans quite as ignorant and loyal then appealing to their basest instincts. Anzu had been using this particular seduction trick on her prey for ages, male and female, and it had never failed.

Underneath the foul liquid scent that humans thought attracted females to them, Anzu could smell that this human was one of the ones she was looking for. This was someone who knew about the Ban-Ile, one of the little human pets Yami had acquired during his brief stay in this disgusting human city. Even though she was ignoring his ridiculous advances, Anzu was poised to spring on the slightest hint of information that this idiot would reveal, information that would lead to Anzu's ultimate glory and power...

Until she had what she wanted, Anzu planned to string the idiot along. It would only be a matter of time; none of the panting, drooling idiots ever took long to spill everything they knew. And once she was done with him, Anzu planned to repay every second of boredom she suffered with this idiot's slow agony. Staying in this human mud pit without any chance to vent her anger wouldn't be any fun, after all...

Anzu's delightfully gruesome thoughts paused as someone walked over to where she and the idiot were sitting. By current human standards, the blonde with the legs that was currently approaching them was more physically attractive than Anzu was. Actually...somehow, the blonde seemed almost _familiar_ to Anzu, but she pushed the stray thought aside as unimportant.

The idiot was greeting the blonde warmly now, but Anzu was unconcerned that he might be lured away. She had more than enough skill to keep him close by...and judging from the style of the greeting, this woman was just one of the other students at the idiot's school or something - in other words, someone totally unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

"Nice to see you, Honda," the blonde replied to the idiot's greeting, "Care to introduce me to your new friend?"

"Oh...ah, sure," the idiot said, "This is Tea. She is a very, very, very...uh, very close personal friend of mine. Ah...and this is Mai."

"It's, like, SO nice to meet you," Anzu exclaimed.

Anzu was using her 'human voice'. It was so happy and sweet-sounding that it sometimes took a great deal of Anzu's self-control to keep from vomiting when she used it. It worked well for keeping humans from guessing her true nature, but that was all Anzu _ever_ wanted to use it for.

Once again, it worked perfectly. Anzu could see the Mai woman reassess her as a featherbrained cutesy-girl before she spoke again.

"This is very interesting," the blonde remarked, "Honda, you and this..._lovely_ girl make quite a nice couple."

The blonde winked at the idiot boy, who went bright red in the face and made protests to the contrary. Anzu moved to put an end to the conversation before it got too cutesy-friendly for her to stomach.

"It's, like, just so wonderful that Hiroto-kun can take time away from his busy schedule to, like, show me around Domino City," Anzu crooned, draping herself over the idiot boy to ensure he was paying _very_ close attention to her, "It's so big and confusing...I just don't know what I, like, would have done if Hiroto-kun hadn't been such a gentleman and offered to give me, like, a personal tour..."

The idiot boy seemed unable to speak in full syllable words any more. The blonde's eyes narrowed - of course she wasn't nearly as big of an idiot, and so the woman seemed to be understanding that Anzu wasn't truly interested in her idiot friend. Humans back-stabbed each other all the time, however, and so the blonde woman seemed only to nod to herself before turning away to '_leave the couple alone on their little date_.'

Before she got more than a few steps away, the blonde turned back to face Anzu.

"By the way," she asked, "I was just wondering...that is such a _nice_ bracelet you have. I'd love to have one of my own...could you tell me where you bought it?"

Anzu glanced down at her wrist. Seeing what the blonde was referring to, Anzu shrugged.

"Honestly, I've had this old thing for so long that I, like, can't even remember where I got it," Anzu replied, "It's just a silly little trinket, really, not very interesting at all. Now, Hiroto-kun, what was it you were saying? I, like, can't really remember..."

The idiot began babbling nonsense at top speed, while the blonde quietly turned and walked away. Anzu ignored both of them. That _stupid_ bracelet...just when she had banished its existence from her mind, some stupid human brings it back up again.

Well, there was no point letting it get to her, it was really nothing more than a stupid old bauble anyway.

0

0

Mai felt bile rising in her throat as she walked away from that scene in the park. Only careful self-control kept her from rushing back, wings spread, and taking that evil demon head-on. But that was stupid, and Mai had never been one for charging in and fighting head-on when there were easier ways to do things.

She would need to work very fast if Honda was going to make it away from his new 'girlfriend' alive. At the moment, Mai had a clear advantage. While she had recognized the demon - and how could she NOT, when that sickening girl paraded around in her old skin? - the demon had not recognized Mai.

The demon didn't know who and what Mai really was. It thought that its secret was safe. What that demon didn't know was that Mai knew far more about the situation than almost anyone else could possibly have known.

That 'silly little trinket' of a bracelet that it so easily dismissed...Mai knew ALL about that bracelet; she'd _created_ it, after all.

/_Mai was surprised that Yami would ask her for help. He was usually rather stuck-up for a Ban-Ile, immature and annoying. But here he was, asking for advice as if his life depended on it! Even stranger was the sort of advice he wanted. Yami wanted to know - of all things - what a good gift would be for a girl._

_This made no sense. Mai knew Yami well enough to know that he had no interest in any of the female Ban-Ile around their age. Furthermore, Mai was not lonely enough to think that Yami could possibly have been interested in her this entire time. All the same, here he was asking for advice on what a good present for a girl was._

_Curiosity overcoming her, Mai prodded Yami for information. Who was this girl that he was interested in? Over and over, and getting more agitated by the minute, Yami insisted that it was absolutely none of Mai's business._

"Oh well. I guess I'll just wait and see who gets the gift I'll be telling you to get," _Mai finally said._

"Right, good luck with that," _Yami replied, sounding extremely sarcastic_, "Now, are you going to help me or not?"

_Eventually, Mai had fished something out of her personal things. It was a wonderfully woven bracelet. Gleaming crystals poked out of the mesh here and there, and it was quite lovely. Mai had made it herself, and shook her head in amusement when Yami had snatched the thing out of her hands and flown off with only the barest hint of a thank-you._

_All the same, Mai felt a bit sorry for him. Yami had been acting oddly for a while now. Ever since skipping one of Elder Nadda's lessons and getting stuck in some forest somewhere, Yami would occasionally disappear, soaring away in what she'd seen was that same general direction and coming back hours and hours later._

_Yami had never shown signs of interest in any of the eligible women of their small tribe. But now he was completely infatuated with someone - or with something - in what had to be that same forest. Amongst Ban-Ile, this was all fine and dandy, but Mai had been a fully-fledged adult amongst humans for a long while before her transformation. She knew quite a bit more about love and heartbreak than Yami did._

_Because of her concern, the bracelet Mai had just handed to him was a spelled bracelet. If the one wearing it betrayed the intentions of the giver, that bracelet would cling to the betrayer and never let go. If the arm wearing the bracelet were cut off and discarded, the spell would re-attach the bracelet to the betrayer's other arm, or some other limb, for as long as the betrayer lived._

_Elder Nadda had taught her how to make such kinds of markers in a special private lesson. Ironically, that lesson had occurred when Yami had gotten himself stuck in the forest; most of the rest of the tribe had joined the search._

_Although this probably wasn't quite the use Elder Nadda would have imagined Mai's newfound skill to be put to, Mai couldn't see any harm in it. It was really more of a precaution at most. Most likely Yami would never find any sort of need to learn of Mai's little surprise._

_Really, what was the harm?_/

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	15. this world of shadowless ones

Another day, another chapter...

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Jonouchi had gone off to watch television after a while, complaining about stupidly unsolvable riddles. Ironically, it was _only_ after the blond teen had loudly declared that the riddle was impossible and that no one could ever solve it - combined with a bit of pleading puppy-eyes on Mokuba's part - that Seto even began to start taking an interest in the aforementioned riddle.

And just a few short hours later, Seto was reviewing his results with moderate satisfaction. Obviously, only a fool like Jonouchi (or someone that was tired after a long day, such as his younger brother) would be stumped by this riddle. It was really rather simple.

With Jonouchi and Mokuba dozing off in front of the television, it was finally quiet enough for Seto to work in peace. He had almost cracked the entire puzzle when Yuugi wandered in from the other room. The mute boy's bird was perched on top of the television, head curled up and clearly asleep. Seto didn't bother to physically acknowledge Yuugi's presence until a spike-haired shadow cut into his light.

As soon as Seto glanced towards the source of that shadow, Yuugi moved out of his light and raised his hands.

(**Good progress**) Yuugi inquired.

Seto considered things a moment, then decided that since Yuugi lacked his friend's obvious mental deficiencies, conversing with him wouldn't be too much of a problem. That in mind, Seto replied calmly and concisely.

"I have finished work on the majority of the line. This passage's difficulty mainly stems from its short length, but it is otherwise quite clear. 'Where land reaches to pierce the sky' indicates a mountain or mountain range. The second line alludes to flight, which indicates that this mountain or mountain range is quite high."

(**That is good. What about the last part**)

Seto turned back to the copy of the riddle and indicated the last three lines.

"The next section refers to a 'man sitting forever'. There are several possible answers to that line, none of which can be completely eliminated without further context. The simplest explanation of the 'man sitting forever' line would be a grave containing a body."

The tone Seto chose to use clearly explained what he thought about _that_. This riddle might be fairly simple, but it sure couldn't be _that_ obvious. Gratifyingly, Yuugi seemed to understand and share the same sentiment.

When Seto declined to continue the conversation on his end, Yuugi only stepped slightly closer, craning his head to get a better look at the lines. Seeing that he was merely rereading the passage, Seto turned his attention back to the task at hand.

Abruptly, Yuugi froze. After another moment, the mute darted around behind Seto.

Seto turned in his seat to see what Yuugi was doing, but the other boy was heading for a side table, one of the ones tucked in the room's various corners. There wasn't a great deal of time for Seto to wonder about what Yuugi was doing, though, because the mute boy quickly picked something up and brought it back over to where Seto was seated. Yuugi set his prize down on top of the papers with a modest _thup_. Seto stared at it for a full minute in actual confusion. It was one of those novelty fat laughing Buddha statues that were everywhere in the hotel; Seto knew that a percentage of China's tourist revenue actually came from the production and sale of the grotesque things. Still, he couldn't fathom why Yuugi had brought it over.

Seeing that he wasn't making himself understood, Yuugi finally raised his hands and explained himself.

(**This is a man sitting forever**) Yuugi signed, (**What do you think**)

When he realized what Yuugi meant, Seto felt a glimmer of a surprised smirk rise to his lips. As a matter of fact, '_a statue_' had been the answer he had been leaning towards in the first place, but the brunette had tried to keep himself open towards other possibilities. However, now that Seto's conclusion had been independently chosen by someone else possessing some form of useful intelligence, Seto felt much more confident.

(**Maybe start with highest mountains and work down**) Yuugi suggested, seeing Seto reach for his laptop.

'_As if I were planning to search with a different method_,' Seto thought to himself.

Ignoring Yuugi now, Seto began typing rapidly, his fingers almost a blur over the keys. Seeing that the billionaire was now even less interested in company than before, Yuugi went to go check on his now-drooling friend, certain that the search was in good hands.

Which it was; Seto might believe their supposed mission was utter nonsense, but there was plenty of satisfaction to be had in the intellectual challenge that the billionaire was now being presented with.

0

0

Bright and early the next morning, their group checked out of the hotel in Hong Kong. Boarding the Kaibas' jet, they took off for the location Kaiba had found in his search. After some mild consideration, Kaiba had selected the highest inhabited area in the world as their target. This resulted in a short flight towards the Himalayas, their destination a remote village in Nepal.

Unfortunately, their destination was so remote that it didn't have an airport, even for the small jet they were using. Kaiba's jet had to land at another village that was near their destination and that also had a modest airstrip. Much to Kaiba's further annoyance, their group had to spend the next two days stuck in that village acclimating to the high altitude. Jonouchi spent the days flat on his back, complaining about the lack of air and heat as best as possible. Mokuba also spent the time lying around adjusting. If Kaiba was having any difficulties with the altitude he refused to show it, working on something on his laptop almost continuously.

Yuugi spent the two days sharing a room with Jonouchi and Mokuba, listening to former wheeze a blue streak, but it was not due to any problems with the thin air. Rather, it was the exact opposite.

Yuugi had no problems whatsoever with the thinner air, despite never having experienced such conditions before in his whole life.

Since running around unaffected would be just as fun as screaming '_Look at me, I'm a freak of nature!_' from the rooftops, Yuugi quietly faked his altitude sickness. Kikki, who was also unaffected by the thinner air, thought that the whole thing was boring and stupid.

Once everyone finished acclimating, their group managed to finagle a ride to their actual destination on one of the village's two working cars. Kaiba had to pay for the ride with some spare gasoline that was stored in the plane, but it was over fairly swiftly. Within a few hours, their group was standing in the highest-altitude village in the world.

Their target village was small, yet bustling with daily activity. Its inhabitants were hard at work with their daily lives. So focused they were, in fact, that none of them paid any attention to their strange foreign visitors. It didn't take lone for the group to realize that this might constitute a problem.

"It's too damn cold up here," Jonouchi shivered, "This completely sucks...do we even know where we're going?"

"Where exactly are we going, anyway?" Mokuba asked his brother.

"There are records of an unusually large temple in this area," Kaiba explained, mostly for his brother's benefit.

Before Kaiba could continue, a strange voice spoke up from behind them. Turning around, the foursome-plus-bird saw a teenager staring at them. The teen was about their age, had somewhat stringy black hair, and dark green eyes. Dangling from a pierced ear was what looked oddly like a die. The teen didn't look anything like any of the local villagers, either.

What was really interesting was that the teen had just spoken in fluent, albeit accented, Japanese.

"I said," the teen repeated when he saw that he was being stared at, "Are you all were looking for something? We don't get many tourists this far up. Not many visitors at all, actually."

"And you would be who now?" Kaiba replied.

The teen frowned at Kaiba's tone, then beamed a brilliant smile towards Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Yuugi.

"I suppose I stick out a bit, don't I? My name's Otogi, Otogi Ryuuji. Though not many people call me that these days, actually. They use my nickname - Duke! I've been living here for a while now, so I hope my Japanese isn't too rusty for you."

"No way," Jonouchi replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, "You're loud and clear!"

Jonouchi ran through a quick introduction of their little group (Kaiba was not amused at being dubbed '_the tall dumbass_'), before adding, "Y'know, you got great timing there Duke. I bet you can help us find what we're looking for!"

"I certainly hope I can be of some help," Duke replied, "I know this area pretty well, actually. You might even say that there's nothing local to this area that I don't know about!"

"We came because we heard of a temple somewhere in this area," Kaiba said, not even trying to sound convincingly interested, "We were wondering if we could visit it."

Kaiba's usual demeanor hadn't fazed Duke much before; the sudden faltering of the black-haired teen's cheer was therefore somewhat surprising.

"Oh, _that_," Duke said after a moment's pause, "I hate to say it, but that story about a temple on this mountain isn't true, actually."

"Really?" Mokuba asked.

"I'm afraid so," Duke replied, "A lot of people have come up this way before you with the said idea, actually. They hear about this ancient temple and think it's true, but it's not. Nothing but a rumor that won't stop resurfacing."

Kikki, who was perched on Yuugi's shoulder, was looking Duke over as he explained this fact. When the bird was satisfied with his inspection, he spoke up.

((**He go lying in his beak**,)) Kikki declared loudly.

Duke's eyes flicked towards Kikki for a moment, then away. No one else reacted to the bird's chirps.

"I'm sorry if this causes you a lot of trouble," Duke continued, "We keep trying to explain that the story's wrong, actually. There's always someone who doesn't listen and tells other people...so unless there was something else up here you came to see, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do."

"...Maybe you could at least show us around this village?" Jonouchi offered, in an attempt to cheer up their suddenly-morose new friend.

"Sorry," Duke replied, surprising them, "I wish I could, actually. But I'm running a little late, so I need to go. Good luck with the rest of your trip, you guys!"

And with a quick wave, Duke darted off. They watched him maneuver through the villagers, until he disappeared from sight around the corner of a building. Once Duke was gone, Jonouchi glared at Kaiba, as if the brunette was the source of all this trouble.

"So much for that amazing plan of yours, Kaiba," Jonouchi grumbled, "Worked so well, too."

"Imbecile," Kaiba replied.

Jonouchi started to snarl something in reply, but Kaiba cut him off with ease.

"That fool just lied to our faces. Only a complete imbecile would have fallen for such an obvious ruse."

"But...why doesn't that Duke guy want us going to see that temple?" Mokuba asked.

"I think we should ask and find out," Jonouchi replied, turning to glare in the direction where Duke had gone, "C'mon! Follow that Duke!"

They started walking in that direction. Unfortunately, Duke seemed to have vanished into the thin air. On top of that, this village wasn't very big, and after only an hour or so, they had checked everywhere there was to look with no success.

"This is just great. What do we do now? That Duke guy is probably the only person here that could tell us about the temple!"

"Enough with your incessant whining, imbecile," Kaiba snapped.

"Why you..."

While Jonouchi pushed his anger aside to wait for a more appropriate time, Kaiba pulled something out of his coat pocket. Unfolding the small white square revealed a printed, detailed map of the area.

"The temple in question was originally discovered during an aerial survey over fifty years ago. Since then, every attempt at confirming the temple's location for more detailed study has been prohibited; on top of that, aircraft possessing any aerial reconnaissance ability are no longer permitted to enter the area. _However_," and here Kaiba began to look smug, "The original results of that first survey were preserved unaltered, stored safely away from any prying eyes..."

"At least until my brother found them, bought them, and had a copy of them sent to us before we even left Hong Kong." Mokuba added gleefully.

Mokuba was beaming with pride at his crafty older brother. Kaiba looked extremely smug and wasn't even trying to hide it.

"Show-offy rich jerk," Jonouchi muttered.

They gathered around the map. According to it, the temple was located at a much higher elevation than this village. Unfortunately for them, the highest areas of the village were separated from the higher parts of the mountain by large, jagged rocks, vertical cliffs, and other various unpleasant forms of terrain.

Unwilling to concede defeat so easily, they split up to search for some area that was passable. Yuugi chose to search around the farther edge of the village, with Kikki flapping around overhead for a better view. Even with their combined efforts, it appeared that there was nothing to be found...

Kikki, with his obvious advantage, was the one who found the way up in the end. Following the bird's cries of triumph, Yuugi found himself staring at the bottom step of a very unusually-placed staircase. Cut out of the rocky mountainside, Yuugi could see the stairs vanish in the distance as they wound back and forth, leading up towards the mountain's summit.

((**What you thinky, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly?**)) Kikki said as he perched on a step, happily preening his feathers, ((**Me think Lying-Beak go this way!**))

Yuugi had to admit, this staircase didn't seem to serve any other purpose for the village. In fact, judging from how well it was hidden, as well as how little the villagers seemed to come over to this spot, Yuugi entertained the notion that perhaps not even one of the villagers knew this that staircase was even here.

It took a few minutes to collect Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Kaiba. Once Yuugi showed them what he and Kikki had found, the decision to see just where these stairs lead was unanimous.

The stairs were longer than they looked. Their group had to periodically stop for a rest as Yuugi, Jonouchi, and Mokuba's legs got tired. Kaiba, as usual, seemed unbothered by any of the strenuous activity, but conceded to the breaks for his younger brother's sake. Kikki was also unaffected, having a wonderful time circling their group in the air and complaining about the slow pace of ground-dwellers.

After hours of climbing up the winding staircase, they finally reached the top. The stairs connected the village far below with a wide, flat area that had also been carved out of the rocky mountainside. It was totally unsheltered, every inch exposed to the open air, and was completely bare of any trace of use.

This wasn't a dead end, however. Across the flat area from the staircase was the base of a tall vertical cliff. What was interesting about it was the tunnel that was carved into it. The tunnel was wide enough for two cars to drive through side-by-side, and was most definitely not natural.

Inside the tunnel, they found themselves moving in almost total darkness. The only sources of illumination was the light emanating from the entrance behind them, and another patch of light that revealed the exit; it lay not too far ahead. As they walked down the tunnel, they were able to barely make out odd little shelves jutting out of the walls of the tunnel, placed at a level that was just above Kaiba's head and appearing at regular intervals. This tunnel had all the signs of a structure that had once been in use, but was now abandoned. It was very eerie.

Walking out the other end of the tunnel, their group discovered that they had just entered a high-walled, stone-lined courtyard. Sticking out of the ground were large pillars carved into strange shapes, sort of like fat, stone-colored leafless trees. Their presence only added to the eeriness of the situation.

At the other end of the courtyard stood a very large building. The building, which looked very imposing at this distance, was built into another one of those huge vertical cliffs. Everything seemed to be made from that same source of blue-gray stone, giving the area a very imposing sense about it.

"So, there's no temple on this mountain, is there?" Jonouchi growled once their destination was in plain view, "That _bastard_, when I get my hands on him..."

"Is anyone else getting a bad feeling? I'm kinda getting a bad feeling," Mokuba spoke up, staring at the vast and deserted courtyard from the safe area directly behind his older brother.

"Let's go," Kaiba said, walking towards the temple just ahead of the group, "The sooner we do this, the sooner we can leave."

The courtyard was quite wide, making their progress seem even slower than it actually was. The intimidating atmosphere was little incentive for going any faster. If not for the fact that Kaiba was in the lead, they might not have managed walking straight across towards the enormous temple building. This case of nerves was the reason Mokuba stayed so close behind his brother, peering in every direction as if expecting something to leap out of nowhere and attack.

And yet it was still something of a surprise when something did. Kaiba was just passing one of the weird pillar-things when a big white _thing_ threw itself off the top. The white thing landed right in front of the group. It growled, it stomped its feet, and then it waved a wicked-looking spear at them. They could all see it clearly - a furry and angry-looking monster, with vicious, gleaming fangs protruding from its snarling mouth.

Jonouchi leapt to the obvious conclusion.

"AHH! _YETI!_" the blond teen shrieked.

The monster didn't seem to appreciate the screaming, and bellowed a hoarse cry of rage. Then it charged at the group, its spear already stabbing wildly.

Not even Kaiba was willing to stand his ground when faced with this clearly crazed monster; their group scattered as the monster charged through. It turned around, roared again, and charged towards Yuugi and Mokuba.

"It was supposed to be a myth!" Mokuba cried, as the pair turned tail and ran for it.

The monster was hot on their heels. A quick glance behind revealed that Jonouchi and Kaiba had started chasing the monster, intent on saving their friends/younger brother from the ferocious monster. Even with this pursuit, the monster seemed fixated on the two smaller boys.

Mokuba and Yuugi's path of flight was aimed for another of those weird pillar-things. Mokuba dodged one way at the last second, while Yuugi dodged in the opposite direction. Much to his dismay, the monster decided to ignore Mokuba and keep chasing Yuugi.

With all this going on, it was surprising that Yuugi even noticed what he did: Yami's pendant had started vibrating frantically the second the monster had started going after Yuugi alone. Unfortunately, Yuugi unconsciously slowed down when he tried to puzzle over the meaning of this strange reaction, and only narrowly avoided being skewered by the monster's spear.

"Don't you stick that damn thing at my friend!" Jonouchi roared, skidding to a halt just before the monster turned around and tried to skewer him instead, "You bastard, I'll shove that thing up your furry ass!"

The monster roared, flailing the spear wildly. It seemed almost confused, as if it didn't know which one of them it was aiming for. All the same, as long as it had that spear at hand, there was no way to put a stop to that monster's rampaging without someone getting hurt in the process.

And that was when Kikki, almost forgotten, saved the day.

Dive-bombing from straight overhead, the bird fluttered and pecked at the monster's head, screaming profanity at the top of his shrill little voice. When the monster moved to swat away the pesky bird, Kikki seized hold of the monster's furry head in his claws and pulled, hard.

The fur moved with ease, as it turned out to be fake.

From under the hood of fake-fur, a muffled voice was cursing, and with the hood out of place, the voice's owner seemed unable to see where they were going. Tripping over its own foot, the 'monster' fell flat on its rear, dropping its spear in the process. Kaiba quickly snatched up the spear, and Yuugi, being the closest, reached for the hood and pulled it all the way off.

It really was completely fake. And the head underneath it belonged to none other than Otogi 'Duke' Ryuuji.

"_Damn_ it," Duke cursed, seeing that his secret was exposed.

Mission accomplished, Kikki returned to his usual spot on Yuugi's shoulder to preen. The remainder of the group closed in on the fallen Duke, preventing him from making a sudden escape.

"Alright, what's the damn idea Yeti-boy?" Jonouchi demanded, "You better got a real good explanation on why you were just trying to kill us!"

"Yeah! You better tell us!" Mokuba agreed from behind the safety of his brother and the spear.

"...I wasn't trying to kill you," Duke reluctantly explained.

"Could'a fooled me," Jonouchi retorted.

"I _wasn't!_" Duke insisted, "I wasn't aiming to kill any of you! I was _trying_ to scare you guys off. For all the good that did me - no one ever tried attacking me _back_ before..."

Duke shot them all dirty looks, clearly blaming them for his current indignity.

"And the reason you lied to us about this temple's existence was...?"

Duke glared up at Kaiba, seemingly unconcerned about how Kaiba was keeping his own spear trained on the center of his chest.

"I don't have to tell you people anything," Duke replied sourly.

"Don't look that way to me," Jonouchi said, cracking his knuckles in an expectant manner.

There was a long moment as the two sides glared at each other. Until at last Yuugi, who had been quietly thinking over what had just happened, nodded to himself and then raised his hands.

(**Thought so. Duke is a Ban-Ile too**) Yuugi signed.

0

0

"WHAT?" Jonouchi exclaimed.

"What what? What did he say?" Mokuba asked.

"You're kidding, right Yuugi? Please tell me you're kidding..."

Yuugi shook his head, signing (**Sorry no joke**).

Still gaping, Jonouchi pointed at the fallen Duke in clear disbelief.

"Of all the weirdest things I could'a thought of, that's gotta be the weirdest! How can you even tell, man? He ain't got those wings that Yami had..."

"What wings?" Mokuba asked plaintively, "What are you guys _talking_ about?"

Kaiba, the only other one in their group who could understand Yuugi's signing, appeared suddenly irritated by the reemergence of this (to his mind) nonsensical idea. Duke, on the other hand, had suddenly gone very pale. Apparently Duke could read sign language as well.

"...It can't...how...I...how do you _humans_ know about _us_?"

Duke's stammering reply proved Yuugi's words true instantly, and provoked another surprised exclamation out of Jonouchi.

"Know about what? What's going on!" Mokuba demanded, clearly becoming frustrated.

Belatedly remembering that Mokuba had missed half of what had just been said, Jonouchi hurried to clarify.

"Yuugi said that this guy is a Ban-Ile, and I wasn't so sure, but he really is! Right? You just admitted it, right?"

Sighing in defeat, Duke made an affirmative wave of his hands. Then the black-haired Ban-Ile clambered to his feet.

"I can't believe this," Duke huffed, "All this time we've managed to stay hidden, and now the whole world seems in on our secret!"

(**Not the whole world**) Yuugi pointed out.

"Even so," Duke retorted, "How did any of you learn about us, actually?"

"Oh, we met one recently," Jonouchi explained, "Guy named Yami. Had the wings and everything. Hey, maybe you know him?"

"I don't know anyone with that name," Duke replied, eyebrow raised skeptically, "And if he was over in Japan, then he must not be in my _Deyadi_ anyway."

"...A '_Deh-ya-di_'?" Mokuba wondered.

"Well, in your languages, I think it means something like 'tribe'," Duke shrugged, "For my people, it means that our wings are the same."

Seeing that no one had understood that, Duke gave a frustrated sigh. With a brief glance around, checking that there was no one else in the courtyard but them, Duke's gaze went momentarily distant. Silently, a pair of great wings emerged from his back. Then it made sense.

Yami's wings - which Jonouchi and Yuugi had both seen up close - and Duke's wings were indeed very different. Yami's had been brighter, with the feathers gleaming like diamonds, and their shape had been rather angular. Duke's wings had much softer curves, and were a softer shade as well, more like newly-fallen snow. Yuugi even pulled out Yami's feather to compare; Duke only glanced at it once before confirming that yes, their friend must have been from a different _Deyadi_.

"Well, now what are we gonna do?" Jonouchi pointed out next, "Weren't we looking for some way to help Yami? If these are a different bunch of Ban-Ile, ain't we back where we started?"

"You four need to come with me, actually," Duke spoke up.

"And why would we do that?" Kaiba said, the first thing he'd said in some time.

"Because communication between _Deyadi_, even as roundabout as this is, is a serious matter. You have to speak to an Elder now. And it's starting to snow. Humans don't have a high tolerance for extreme cold, as I recall. And also if you don't come, I have to make you, actually."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow, clearly not at all intimidated by the implied threat. Duke met his gaze levelly.

"And if I have to make you, I wouldn't keep holding back, actually," Duke mentioned, almost as an afterthought.

"Uh," Jonouchi looked between Kaiba and Duke, suddenly getting the feeling that Kaiba might be stubborn enough to stick it out and fight, "Y'know, it might be a good idea to go inside and not stay out in the cold..."

After another minute, Kaiba harrumphed to himself and began pointedly ignoring Duke: apparently he felt that such a fight was beneath him after all. Yuugi, Mokuba, and Jonouchi breathed a small sigh of relief, and followed a now-cheerful Duke as he lead them across the rest of the courtyard and into the doorway of the temple.

The doorway of the temple had no door or cover to keep out the weather, yet for some reason the second they crossed the threshold the group found that it was comfortably warm. The snow swirled around outside, but not a single flake seemed able to enter the warmth. While their group enjoyed this unexpected treat, Duke stowed his Yeti disguise in an alcove right by the doorway.

When Kaiba balked at returning Duke's spear, the Ban-Ile's gaze only narrowed slightly. Then Duke's wing twitched.

Duke then reached out and calmly caught the spear when Kaiba dropped it. Kaiba was left fuming at being so easily disarmed by some feathers, but did not make any attempt to recover the spear after Duke put it away with the rest of his Yeti disguise.

Once this was taken care of, Duke lead the way deeper into the temple. Down one corridor, and up another, up a flight of stairs and down a sloping walkway, it seemed amazing that Duke could find his way around such a featureless place so easily. During this walk, their group saw no sign that anyone lived in this place at all.

(**Do many people live here**) Yuugi asked Duke at one point.

"Nope," Duke replied cheerfully, "Thankfully, we're still large enough to stay dispersed. This is a good area for our kind, actually."

"So, does that mean all the Yeti sightings have really been you guys?" Mokuba asked from where he was trailing behind his brother.

"Not as many as you'd think, actually," Duke answered, still sounding cheery, "The ones that humans see up close are all the real Yet'ni. I think my imitation is fairly decent, actually."

"I guess...did you say '_Yet'ni_'?"

"That's what they call themselves. Yet'ni make for interesting neighbors, even though they tend to be fairly reclusive, actually. The weird thing about the Yet'ni is that they find humans very amusing, and like having them around to watch and scare."

Duke's tone darkened slightly.

"If it weren't for the Yet'ni, we would have driven your kind off these mountains a long time ago. Having humans in the vicinity is too dangerous otherwise."

Sensing that this was a sore topic for some reason, Yuugi decided to tactfully change the subject.

(**This place is very impressive**) he signed, (**What do you use it for if no one lives here**)

"Some of us do live here," Duke said, expression brightening again, "I do, for one. I'm the guard. I have to make sure that no one finds this place. It's a pretty easy job, actually. The local humans think this place is nothing but an old story. Any humans that manage to find their way up here get driven away by a 'ferocious Yet'ni'. You're the first humans in about seventy years that have even found the stairs, actually."

Further questions were put on hold as Duke lead them around another turn. Now they were walking down the biggest, most impressive corridor any of them had seen yet. Unlike the other corridors, this one was decorated with carvings of strange things, all of which had at least one pair of wings. The end of the corridor opened into a huge, grand-looking room.

The huge room wasn't well-lit, but what little could be made out was still very impressive. At the same time, it seemed almost sad; once this had been a bustling, busy place, but now this room and the rest of the temple were fading from lack of use.

The room was mostly empty. Set in the middle was a roaring bonfire, providing most of the light. Surrounding that fire were some padded benches, forming a circle around the blaze. Otherwise, the floor was completely bare of furniture.

Seated on one of those benches, watching as their group entered and clearly waiting for them, was a man. His long silver-colored hair hung loose, and his large wings were open. From the looks of things, this older Ban-Ile seemed to find his visitors almost amusing.

"Elder, sir," Duke said, bowing respectfully to the older Ban-Ile.

"Ah!" the Elder began, beaming with a oddly delighted smile, "Visitors at this time of year, Otogi-boy? How _wonderful_! It's been such a long time since we last had company up here. Well, I know exactly why they're here, so why don't you have them sit down, hmm?"

The Elder's odd cheerfulness was more than a little unnerving. Even Duke looked a little uneasy, and this was supposed to be someone he knew. As it was, not even Kaiba felt an urge to argue with such a weird person, and everyone was seated quick enough.

"Well now, isn't this nice?"

The Elder shook out his wings a little, still beaming in that disturbing manner.

"I see the clue from China was more helpful than expected! I am so delighted to see that you made it here safely. But do you know why you've come?"

Before anyone could answer, the Elder continued talking without missing a beat.

"Obviously Kaiba-boy there is avoiding some pesky fellows after his money, and Mokuba wants to have a cool adventure without being stuck at home, but Yuugi-boy and his friends have a wholly different reason for coming along, am I right?"

A long pause followed this statement. Kaiba found his voice first, but seemed unable to decide where to begin demanding explanations for the Elder's mysterious knowledge of their situation. The Elder chuckled merrily at the confused billionaire.

"Oh don't fret, I haven't been spying on you," the Elder said, "I only just happen to know exactly what it is you are thinking. But it's a serious business, dealing with demons. Not many Ban-Ile live long enough for rescuing once they're captured...the chances of your friend Yami being one of them is really rather low."

Duke seemed to start in his seat - no one had mentioned the fact that Yami had been captured to him at all.

"Oh yeah?"

Jonouchi was more than able to ignore the Elder's weirdness now; at last, here was something more familiar - an argument!

"Well, maybe we don't give a shit what you think," Jonouchi continued, "We're here ta find a way ta save our friend, and I ain't backing down 'cause some tripped-out guy with wings don't think we can do it! You got that, punk!"

There was another long pause. Kaiba, Mokuba, and Yuugi spent this one staring at Jonouchi and wondering if he was insane. Duke, on the other hand, looked completely outraged at the rudeness directed towards his Elder.

As for the Elder himself, he didn't seem annoyed or intimidated at all. In fact, a few seconds later, the Elder began laughing merrily. Jonouchi took offense to this.

"I'm serious here!" Jonouchi yelled, "We ain't gonna leave Yami hanging! C'mon, Yuugi, back me up on this!"

Yuugi blinked, startled to suddenly be the center of the group's attention. Even Kaiba seemed interested in what would happen next, as if he was watching a sporting event. However, before he had done more than raise his hands, Yuugi found himself being cut off by the Elder.

"Oh yes, don't worry about it," the Elder said with a airy wave of his hand, "I certainly am not going to question your _sincerity_..."

The Elder said 'sincerity' with enough emphasis to draw another nasty look from Jonouchi. Ignoring it, the Elder continued, "I merely wonder if you can manage things. It's merely a simple question of _character_, my boy! It's so wonderful that you bought such a good judge of character with you from Bird Street, otherwise you might have been in some serious trouble!"

Everyone was silent again. What did the Elder mean, from Bird Street? Did he mean...? Kaiba's expression darkened at this new sign of complete nonsense.

"Listen here, you psycho..." Kaiba began.

The teen billionaire was irrupted when Kikki ruffled his feathers and made what was to all ears, even those unable to understand birds, a throat-clearing noise. That sound, coming from a bird, was so unusual that no one else broke the silence again.

Ruffling his feathers again for good measure, Kikki eyed the Elder beadily from his perch on Yuugi's shoulder.

((**You crazy shit beaking beaky-beak!**)) Kikki yelled at the Elder, ((**This flock be dirt-crazy, but no one perfect. Me no see no scratchie in here yet, but me know no scratchie do shitty dirt things. You is shitty beaking in your tail, all flyer know more scratchie is good! Shitty-beak scratchie!**))

Jonouchi, Mokuba, and Kaiba were eyeing the bird while he spoke, clearly wondering what, if anything, was being said. Yuugi tried to match their expressions, hoping that the Elder wouldn't take offense to Kikki's description of him - assuming that the Elder Ban-Ile could actually understand Kikki word-for-word to begin with. If this failed to work, the only other option might be to show these Ban-Ile Yami's pendant and see if that got them any answers...

Amazingly, the Elder only beamed even brighter in response to this verbal abuse.

"Wonderful!" the Elder exclaimed, "I just love being right! You might have what it takes - perhaps even more, since you all came so early. Yes, you delightful humans DO have what it takes! Otogi-boy, it's time to open up the vault!"

Duke nearly fell out of his seat. He flapped his wings twice to help him regain his balance, then blurted, "W-What? _Now_?"

"Don't be silly, Otogi-boy. I'm sure our guests would much prefer to wait until tomorrow," the Elder admonished him, "Ah, yes. Otogi-boy, I trust you didn't..._lose_ the key...when you were so easily accosted by our lovable little guests, hmm?"

While everyone else in the room choked at hearing themselves being called '_loveable little guests_', Duke tugged something out from under the collar of his shirt. Hanging from a thin chain around his neck was a slender golden-colored rod. It was about as long as a finger, and more than twice as thick. Inscribed on it was a repeating pattern of letters, done in what Yuugi was beginning to recognize as Ban-Ile script.

"Wonderful!" the Elder cried, "Marvelous! We'll go to the vault tomorrow morning then."

No one protested having to stay at the Ban-Ile temple overnight, since it had been getting late in the day when Duke had lead them inside. The only one to resist being immediately ushered out of the grand chamber was Kaiba, but he had a good reason.

"Who are you?" Kaiba asked the Elder.

"Oh my," the Elder blinked, "Did I forget to introduce myself again? Dear me, that won't do, that won't do at all! Thank you so much for the reminder, Kaiba-boy!"

There was a momentary pause as the Elder seemed to think about his response. Then he clapped his hands, once again looking delighted.

"You lovely children can call me Pegasus."

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration.._


	16. Never to return, the shadowed one,

Tch. First I have issues getting the chapter up, and now FFnet's gone haywire with my spacers. Guess I know what I'll be spending the next while fixing...

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Despite the temple being seemingly deserted save for Duke and Pegasus, the rooms that Duke brought them to were already fully prepared for visitors. The rooms were actually very nice. Each was quite large. The most interesting part about the rooms was that the back section, consisting of more than half of each room, had no ceiling, leaving them completely exposed to the sky.

The exposed areas each opened onto their own narrow balcony. There were no railings on the balcony to prevent falls, and the balconies overlooked a dangerous sheer drop. Clearly the Ban-Ile who designed these rooms in the first place had wanted to give the occupants the opportunity to become airborne with minimal difficulty. Seto estimated that each balcony, being about the same size, would allow two Ban-Ile enough room to land and/or takeoff at the same time. Three if they took off by jumping off the balcony first; it was too dark outside to see how far down the drop actually went, which made it hard to estimate...

Thoughts such as these and more ran in circles inside of Seto's head, even as he was admonishing Mokuba to stay far away from that edge, and while the brunette was reveling that the thick stone wall and limit of two beds per room would keep every sound of the blond imbecile's snoring far, far away.

Seto couldn't help it, really: before, he had more or less easily dismissed the notion of people like the 'Ban-Ile' as nonsense - nothing more than some demented fantasy best left in fairy tales. But now that he had actually _seen_ one in person, Seto's highly trained intellect had seized hold of the problem and wasn't letting go.

The wings could have been fakes, moving only by the grace of gears and wiring, perhaps...Seto wanted to believe that very badly, but something about the way Duke and that insane Pegasus had moved their wings left doubt steeping in his brain.

Seto was starting to realize something else that was just as potentially disturbing: if this kept up, that story that those three punks had spun for Mokuba and himself might end up proving itself true. Not only would that be incredibly inconveniencing...there'd been _monsters_ in that story, hadn't there?

'_Stop thinking about it. It's utter _nonsense,' Seto told himself over and over again, '_Most of it _has_ to be. This goes against every known fact of science. There has to be a trick involved!_'

Their room was open to the cold mountain air, as would be expected with such little ceiling. However, Seto found that a large screen that could be pulled across the room, blocking the roofed area containing the beds from the majority of the chill. The material the screen was made of was strange and shimmering. For some reason, it reminded Seto of fish scales...and since that made just as much sense as everything _else _they'd seen so far, Seto shook it easily from his mind and went to bed.

The next morning, breakfast was served just after dawn. This was the time of day that Seto normally got up at to begin with, so this didn't bother him in the slightest. The only real problem was that breakfast was being served in another room, and so Seto had to spend the meal ignoring the imbecile's loud complaints about how early it was.

Another oddity was that despite the apparent lack of people in the building, the large meal that was set out was all fresh, and completely Japanese fare. This high in the mountains, it was very suspicious...and Duke refused to give a straight answer on where the food had all come from, another warning bell in Seto's mind. Even though there was no good reason for anything to be wrong with the food, Duke shouldn't try to fob him off with useless answers...unless the would-be guard-Yeti didn't know the answer _himself_...

That was a disturbing thought. Seto waited until the imbecile had inhaled a good portion of food before concluding that it was probably safe and having some himself. Once everyone had eaten, Duke lead them off on another trip through the featureless corridors, determined to make sure that the 'guests' would be unable to find their way anywhere without help by going in circles as much as possible.

Eventually they reached a corridor that had windows, and the view made Seto suddenly feel uneasy. He was absolutely certain that they hadn't climbed that much higher in the building - if anything, they had been heading downwards more often than not - but the view clearly showed that they were now quite high up. Something was going on that was disobeying the laws of physics...especially since the wind was whipping snow around just outside each window, while not even the slightest bit of cold was leaking through those completely uncovered windows.

Just after they passed the last window, Duke lead them down a short flight of stairs and through a tunnel. Unlike the corridors, this tunnel was rounded, with white walls like snow. It was also colder inside the tunnel than in the corridors.

"Don't touch the walls, okay?" Duke called behind to his suddenly-shivering guests, "You'll freeze solid if you do, actually."

Seto thought that it was a rather stupid thing to threaten, but didn't feel up to taking a poke at the walls himself. No one else was, either, apparently too interested in shivering and whimpering about how cold it suddenly was.

The whimpering came from the imbecile, of course - it wasn't even that cold in here, anyway. A touch chillier, perhaps, but certainly not cold. Seto was not impressed with the imbecile's level of cold tolerance if THIS was too much for him. Thankfully, the tunnel was relatively short, sparing Seto from too much time listening to the whimpers. Situated at the far end of the tunnel was a cavern. Compared to the more exposed part of the temple, the cavern was almost cozy. It was rather dimly lit, especially compared to the tunnel they had just passed through, but Seto's vision adjusted with ease.

Dominating the side of the cavern opposite the tunnel entrance was a statue of good size. It was a Buddha, not particularly elaborate, and seemed to have been carved from the same stone that the rest of the temple was constructed of. Unlike the rest of the temple, however, the statue had been polished with something that made in gleam like slick steel in the half-light from the tunnel.

Standing and waiting for their group was Pegasus. Upon seeing them enter, the man started beaming in that disturbing manner again.

"I _do_ hope the accommodations were quite to your likings," Pegasus greeted them.

Without waiting for a response, Pegasus clapped his hands together in an energetically childlike fashion.

"Well, then, let's not keep you five waiting! Otogi-boy, if you would..."

"Oh! Right, I have it," Duke said.

While Duke fumbled around for the supposedly all-important key, Seto briefly wondered over Pegasus' choice of words. He'd said 'You five' when there were only four of them...Pegasus wasn't including Duke in their group, was he? As if this foolishness would lead to Duke's joining their group...although Pegasus did seem cracked enough that he _might_ have been including Yuugi's ever-present pet bird in the counting.

"Here it is, sir," Duke said at last, handing over the golden stick thing at last.

"Wonderful, simply wonderful," Pegasus beamed, "Do have everyone step back, won't you?"

Without waiting to see if any of them were actually moving backwards, Pegasus turned towards the statue, arms outstretched. Both the statue and the 'key' seemed to start glowing, ever so faintly...but that was just a trick of the light, wasn't it?

"**_Seen well within thought, where wisdom is sought_**," Pegasus recited, "**_I have your key - now give me your lock!_**"

Instantly, an actual lock materialized from thin air. It floated in midair, between Pegasus and the statue, and while it was designed and decorated in an unusually elaborate fashion, there was no doubt in Seto's mind that this was a lock.

Pegasus' sticking the 'key' in the hole and turning it as one would a more conventional lock did not to hinder this observation. With a solid-sounding _click_, lock and key both vanished.

Before Seto's mind could track on that, the statue's eyes began glowing. The color was very strange - some kind of mix of white, yellow, and bright purple, a combination of colors which Seto could of sworn could not _be_ mixed the way it was mixing before his eyes.

The glow grew brighter and brighter, reaching nearly blinding levels after only a few short seconds. Then there was a great flash and the glow disappeared with no sign that it had ever been there in the first place. There was an instant where nothing at all happened.

Then the statue's mouth slid soundlessly open, and something small and yellow sailed out. The something landed neatly in Pegasus' open palm, but it wasn't until the man turned around that Seto could make a detailed examination of the object.

Much to his surprise - although Seto wasn't really certain why this would be surprising to him for any reason whatsoever - it was a small golden orb. With the size and the strange symbol that was its only decoration, it struck him as being a very odd-looking replica of a human eye.

0

0

He'd stopped screaming.

She always hated the part where they stopped screaming.

Even though they were still alive (well, mostly alive) and conscious (whether they wanted to be or not), there was always a certain point when her victims would just stop making noises and or keep thrashing around. It was as if the human body could only handle a certain amount of torture, and once that limit had been reached, it shut off all its nerve endings and waited for death to take them, or for whatever was inflicting the torture to give up and go away.

Anzu grumbled to herself. Even if she had already gotten every last scrap of useful information from the idiotic wretch, there wasn't any fun in torturing something to death when it couldn't FEEL it.

She decided to leave what was left of the fool in the alley. Whether or not help found him really wasn't her concern. Whatever happened to him was his own stupid fault for not leaving town with his little friends - what a complete idiot _he'd_ been!

And maybe this wouldn't be a _total_ loss - after making her report to the Hive-Queen, Anzu thought with a giggle, maybe Yami would like to know what had happened to one of the humans he had so stupidly befriended. Honestly, that Ban-Ile just didn't seem able to make any usefully intelligent choices in life...

Shucking the last remnants of her disgusting human form, Anzu dug her claws into the brick walls of the alley as she climbed to the roof. Once there, she flapped her wings to gain height as quickly as possible, not caring for a second about the ruined remains of a teenaged boy she'd left bleeding and broken behind her.

If Anzu HAD looked back, she might have seen something that might have caused her to worry some: for example, how the 'idiotic human boy's corpse' was now quietly evaporating into smoke, a pair of figures standing over it.

0

0

/_Sometimes, Yami couldn't believe that he'd waited this long to make friends with one of the humans. Indeed, why had he ever listened to the Elders' stupid nonsense? Humans weren't dangerous - it wasn't as if one of them could fly around and point demons towards the nearest Deyadi or anything! The Elders were really paranoid._

_And even if some humans were bad, at least Anzu was the nicest human that Yami had ever met!_

_When he mentioned this to her, she giggled. Before he even thought she could be making fun of him - not that Anzu ever would - she apologized for laughing, then pointed out that she was the ONLY human he had ever met, so how could he really say that?_

_He shrugged, and pointed out that it didn't meant she wasn't nice. For some reason that made her laugh again._

_For some reason, when Anzu teased him or laughed at something silly he'd accidentally said, Yami never felt nearly as angry or embarrassed as he would have been if someone from the tribe had done so. Occasionally he wondered at this. Was the simple fact that Anzu was human why he enjoyed her company? But Mai was at least half human still, and Yami could hardly stand being in that stuck-up woman's presence._

_At least Anzu had liked her gift. She was never without that bracelet._

_For all the joy and fun that this friendship had brought them, there was only one gloomy cloud to darken it. Anzu WAS human, after all. Human life spans were notoriously short, and the omnipresent threats of war, sickness, and other perils that humans faced insured that very few of them reached their long age. One day Anzu would die, and Yami would continue on, barely changed from the day he'd met her in the forest._

_This idea seemed to trouble Anzu quite a bit, because she brought it up fairly frequently in their many conversations. Usually the only way to raise her mood to better spirits would be for Yami to mention some sort of shortcoming or weakness that his race had which humans were free from. He couldn't think of very many, but when that failed, a bit of storytelling proved a wonderful distraction. Anzu particularly liked hearing tales of the War of Demise._

_Demons were only occasional trespassers in this remote area, and there had not been an attack since before Yami himself had been born. All the same, all the stories were passed down and Yami knew most of them perfectly - he had to, what with his particular position..._

_Anzu had most assuredly never seen a demon in her lifespan and had many questions about them. Some were very odd questions, including wondering how long demons lived._

"If the Lord of the Demons is gone forever," _Anzu asked him one day,_ "Why do the demons still hunt your people? Do they want revenge?"

"I doubt it," _Yami had replied,_ "Most demons are too stupid to understand what revenge even is, and I don't know if they hold grudges or not."

_Yami disliked not being able to figure something out. Anzu had been his friend long enough to understand this, and ventured a guess._

"Maybe...they think if they kill all of your people, the Lord of the Demons will come back?" _she offered._

"Ah-ha! That's it! I remember now, they're looking for -"

_Anzu blinked when Yami suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth. Pulling it away, he gave his companion a sheepish smile._

"...I also remembered that I'm not supposed to tell anyone about that. Sorry, Anzu."

"Oh, it's all right," _she had said, a sharp and not unfamiliar note in her voice, _"If you can't trust me with a secret that with go with me to my grave - and since I'm just a human, that grave should be ready for me any day now - then it's certainly no problem for ME..."

_Indecision tore at him. She was right, who was she going to tell? There was no harm in telling her..._

_...Except that...except that he wasn't supposed to tell ANYONE about this - no one at all, not even his own closest kin...he'd made a solemn vow never to endanger that which he was destined to guard...but Anzu was his friend, wasn't she? She would keep the secret safe, right?_

_Right?_

"All right," _he sighed, feeling guilty and torn even as he reached for his most secret possession, _"You must promise never to tell anyone or anything about this. Do you understand, Anzu? I'm trusting you with this."

"You can trust me, Yami," _Anzu replied, blinking in the next instant as sunlight caught the gold in his hand -/_

0

0

"What the hell! Why can't we go and save Yami already? I thought we only needed one of those things to find him!" Jonouchi protested.

"Except that thinking isn't your strong point," Kaiba replied, unable to resist the opportunity.

"And I'll settle my score with _you_ later," Jonouchi growled.

Their group and Duke, having made their way down from the cavern with the statue, were now standing in the corridor before the entrance to the temple. Just beyond the doorway, the courtyard with its weird stone sculptures gleamed under a thin layer of new snow.

Jonouchi turned back towards Duke and repeated, "Why can't we go save Yami now? And just so you know, if it's a stupid reason - I still owe you an ass-kicking for that damn yeti act you pulled on us..."

Unfazed by Jonouchi's threat, Duke levelly replied, "Because going in with just one item would be suicide, actually. Although, if you people really _want_ to die that badly..."

Sensing general hostility starting to rise, Yuugi decided to try and act as a peacemaker.

(**We never heard that we needed a specific number of them**) Yuugi signed, (**Why exactly would it be bad**)

"I thought that was obvious," Duke blinked, "The demons are after those seven Items in order to free their Dread Lord. And even though each Item is pretty powerful, two or three Hive-Queens working together could beat out a single Item. Especially since this Item isn't that strong, actually."

"What does that creepy gold eyeball do, anyway?" Mokuba asked, eyeing the golden eye Duke was currently holding onto.

"This eyeball - which is properly known as the Sennen Eye, actually - allows the one who bears it to read the minds of others," Duke said, "...And it also steals souls, but all of them can do that, actually."

Kaiba made a quiet 'harrumph', showing just what he thought of the Eye's supposed mind-reading abilities. Duke frowned at the sound, but let it slide.

(**So we need more Items**) Yuugi signed, (**Where would we get them from**)

"Yeah, it would probably suck if we went for one that those demons had already gotten to first," Jonouchi agreed.

"...That's a good question, actually," Duke admitted, "I'm sorry I can't answer it. We've kept the _Deyadai_ separate for so long that we don't keep track of where each one is anymore, actually."

"Would that Pegasus guy you work for know?" Mokuba asked.

Now Duke looked embarrassed.

"...Maybe, but he left already, actually. He said he needed to confer with the other Elders. He also said that I'm supposed to go with your group, actually."

"Huh?"

"I'm the one who's supposed to bear the Eye...that was what he told me!" Duke said, "And even if he hadn't ordered me to, I would still want to come with you guys. I want to help."

After a moment's pause, Yuugi, Jonouchi, and Mokuba turned to look at Kaiba. He glared back at them.

"_What?_" He snapped.

"Just wondering if you care whether Duke comes with us or not," Jonouchi pointed out.

"...I _don't_."

"Oh good," Jonouchi grinned, turning back to the confused Ban-Ile and ignoring the glare Kaiba was trying to burn through his skull with, "In that case, welcome to the group, Duke!"

And with that, the newly expanded group walked outside and headed for the old staircase. Oddly enough, none of the villagers noticed nor seemed to care a whit about the group of strange foreigners that had disappeared so mysteriously the day before, only to reappear just now. Duke managed to convince one of the slightly more modernized villagers in driving them to the village with the airstrip where Kaiba's plane was parked, and away they went.

Once safely onboard the plane, Kaiba immediately pulled out his laptop and went back to work. Yuugi, Duke, Jonouchi, and Mokuba, on the other hand, pulled out a world atlas that was onboard and began trying to think of where another Ban-Ile tribe with another of those Sennen Items would be hiding.

Unsurprisingly, this met with much frustration.

(**The point of hiding something is to keep it from being found**) Yuugi pointed out an hour later.

"That's obvious, but damn, this is _hard_," Jonouchi grumbled, "I don't want to play against any Ban-Ile in Hide and Seek."

Duke blinked at the statement, before deciding that it was none of his business and shrugging it off.

"Just looking around is getting us nowhere," Mokuba complained, "C'mon! Everybody try thinking like a Ban-Ile...if you were a Ban-Ile, where would you hide something really important so demons couldn't get at it?"

"I already think like that - since I _am_ one," Duke snorted, "And I may have mentioned this five times already, but I still have no idea where to go next."

"Oh, that's easy. You're not thinking like a _human_ pretending to think like a Ban-Ile would is all," Jonouchi said, "But I am, and to me, this is so simple!"

"Really? Do tell," Duke replied, sounding a bit snappish.

"Fine, I will," Jonouchi said, frowning at Duke's tone.

"Me and Yuugi are probably just as sick of staring at this atlas with no clue as Duke is," Mokuba said, "So can you just tell us your idea already?"

"Oh, sure," Jonouchi shrugged, "But really, it's so _obvious_. All you gotta do is think of someplace that demons wouldn't want to go, and find that place in a place where_ Ban-Ile_ won't wanna go. Since there wouldn't be any Ban-Ile there, the demons wouldn't even check those places! And if they _do_ check, they'd only find stuff that they don't like! I mean, c'mon - you guys put that eyeball thing inside a cave. Even if the cave was at the top of a mountain, it was still a cave. It was a cave, and you guys _fly_...you get what I'm saying yet or what?"

There was a minute's silence, during which everyone just stared at Jonouchi.

"What?" he finally protested, "Hey, it's not like I'm stupid or anything."

"Oh no," Duke protested hastily, "We just - you're right, it _is_ obvious. Why _didn't_ I think of it before?"

Mokuba was nodding agreement with Duke's statement, while Yuugi tried not to shake with the laughter he was holding in. People who didn't know Jonouchi very well always assumed that he wasn't that intelligent...it was always funny seeing them discover otherwise.

With their new objective in place, the four of them went back at the atlas, Duke now providing much useful information. Something that both Ban-Ile and demons shared was a desire to be in an area where it was easy to get airborne, as well as places high off the ground - such as a mountain.

While that made the Himalayas seem like a poor choice of a living area for a Ban-Ile on the run from demons, Duke was quick to point out that the Yet'ni were ferociously territorial, _especially_ when it came to the humans they loved watching and scaring. A truly angry Yet'ni was not something one viewed up close by choice.

"Not to mention that there are too many mountains for anything but a very long and very dedicated search," Duke added, "Even though my whole _Deyadi_ is in the area, the Yet'ni are everywhere on every mountain, actually. Not even a demon swarm could get past all those Yet'ni. It's too bad that the other _Deyadai_ weren't as fortunate as we've been..."

The choices were narrowed. Neither race enjoyed being underground, both preferred to have a higher vantage point than their surroundings, and if the area was too cluttered - for example, had a dense forest or something similar - then it was a hazard for wings, especially since demons couldn't retract theirs the way Ban-Ile could.

Of course, there also needed to be some kind of monument for hiding the Item in. Duke didn't really understand how it worked himself; it was something about 'sympathetic energies' and 'echo rebounds' and other terms that made no sense.

"I say we go to the Amazon Rainforest!" Mokuba said, "Biggest rainforest in the world, tons of areas that haven't been explored - it would be a perfect place to hide!"

"No way," Jonouchi said, "Where would you hide the thing, in a tree? We should go to Stonehenge! No one knows what it does...it would be a great place to hide a magical thing."

"Hah! Stonehenge would be swarming with tourists! No way you could hide anything there and have it not be found in five minutes," Mokuba protested.

Yuugi, for his part, was fingering a page in the atlas. This particular atlas featured a picture of Ayer's Rock, in Australia. That seemed like a good place as any to check out...

"It could be any one of these places," Duke agreed, "There might be an Item at each one, actually. Which one should we go check out first?"

"...How should we pick?" Mokuba said after a moment's pause, "Ro-sham-bo for it?"

(**Close our eyes and pick so that its random**) Yuugi suggested.

"If we really wanted to do this random," Jonouchi pointed out, "We should pin all the maps in this atlas up on a wall and throw darts or something at 'em until we hit a place to check out."

Jonouchi hefted the atlas in his hands as he spoke. No sooner had he finished speaking then a hand reached down and pulled the atlas right out of his grasp. The four of them turned to see Kaiba staring down at them, clearly irritated.

"You are _not_ destroying my atlas, on or off of my jet," Kaiba snapped.

"Well, I'd like to see what ideas you've got, genius-boy!" Jonouchi snapped back at him.

Kaiba stared down at the blond for a moment, face unreadable. Then his features twisted into a nasty-looking smirk.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	17. That quests for the Twilight Dragon

And here's another chapter for you all!

Before I forget, I need to mention one thing: I've never been to Austrailia, okay? Don't kill me for screwing things over.

0

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

* * *

0

0

0

Seeing no point in concealing it, he growled when he heard the noise.

Someone...was whistling.

Bakura _really_ hated that.

Whistling had always grated on his nerves. There was just something about the sound that completely infuriated him to no end. It didn't matter whether the whistler was as tone-deaf as a stone or not, the sound was just NOT pleasant.

It certainly didn't sweeten Bakura's temper to know who was doing the whistling, either. The knowledge that _she_ was heading over to give them a visit was equally unpleasant.

Since there was a few minutes until she actually got here, Bakura gave his erstwhile companion another looking-over. Yami, as would be expected, had not woken up yet.

When he'd been dragged off, Bakura could had given him fifty-fifty odds on not coming back from his little 'visit' to the resident Hive-Queen. When the guards had dragged in what was left of him and thrown him back in the swinging cage, Bakura had almost been surprised to see the other was as intact as he was.

It wasn't necessarily a _good_ thing, of course - it simply meant that the spike-haired little idiot had managed to get through the first session without breaking. But they would keep coming and coming until he was finally broken...Hive-Queens were well-practiced in using efficient breaking methods that would keep their victims alive until the very end. He should know...

Schooling his features to indifference - not that that was hard - Bakura settled back in his cage and waited for the show to arrive.

The bitch strolled in, still whistling, and walked past Bakura's cage as if he wasn't even present. Even though that was supposed to be a snub, Bakura felt like laughing. Only someone as stupid and petty as the bitch would rise to such pathetic bait.

Discovering that her target was still senseless seemed to make the bitch less delighted with herself. Even if it was a worrisome indicator, watching the bitch try (and fail) to rouse Yami with shouts and hitting the side of the cage was fairly amusing - enough for a good chuckle at least.

She turned to glare at him when she heard the sound, and the glare only deepened when she discovered who was laughing at her. She looked oh-so-offended as well...though _really_, this couldn't have been the first time she'd been laughed at, could it?

After a moment, she beamed an unpleasantly pleasant grin at him.

"Hello there, Mop Head," she cheerfully greeted him.

Bakura sneered back at her.

"Hello there, Human Bitch," he cheerfully replied.

He watched in delight as her temper spiked. She always did so HATE being a member of her own species...

"Charming and sane as ever, I see," she growled.

"Quite so, quite so," Bakura nodded at her.

Unfortunately for Bakura's fun, she regained her earlier pleased mood fairly quickly.

"What a time for _this_ lazy fool to be sleeping," she complained, waving a clawed hand in Yami's direction, "I had such _interesting_ news to share with him, too..."

"You finally plan to crawl into a hole and die? That IS interesting news," Bakura replied, "Go ahead and do it - I'll be sure to mention that you stopped by."

She growled. He laughed. For some reason, this seemed to infuriate her even more.

"If you MUST know, imbecile," she finally said, "I just gave the Hive-Queen a most _interesting_ report concerning some humans Yami here used to know. The best of our trackers have already been dispatched in pursuit, though one of them wasn't even smart enough to leave town...go ahead and let him know for me, will you? Assuming that he doesn't Go Grey on you, of course..."

She sneered when she saw his eyes narrow. It wasn't that he was that fond of Yami, but the bitch's remark was of completely disgusting taste and she knew it.

'Going Grey' was a term for when a Ban-Ile literally faded away. Due the fact that Ban-Ile were powerfully spiritual beings, whenever too much time and too much horror overwhelmed one of their number, that Ban-Ile would slowly stop flying...then moving, or eating, or doing anything at all. In the end, the unfortunate Ban-Ile would simply lie down to sleep and never wake up again, their physical form evaporating like water vapor into air and nothingness.

It was hard to get much more offensive than by bringing _that_ little subject up.

"...Your best trackers are out on the hunt, did you say?" Bakura said at length, "Hmm, and _you're_ not with them...so much for your delusions of being such a great demon, eh Human Bitch?"

She snarled and kicked Bakura's cage, sending it swinging wildly on its chain.

"I should tear you to pieces for that!"

"Hn. As if you even could," Bakura sneered at her, unconcerned even as the cage continued to swing, "Even if that was remotely possible outside of your deluded fantasies, Human Bitch, you're out there and I'm in here and the door is _quite_ securely locked..."

"If it's a fight you want, then I hope you can back up your words," she retorted, "I have a key!"

She held out a fat metal key. It was fairly large, and looked like it was made of the same metal as the cages. She waved it at him, apparently trying to be enticing.

"Stole it from the guard, I see," Bakura noted.

"Don't be stupid," she huffed, "You know there are dozens of these keys lying about! So, how badly do you want it, little Ban-Ile?"

He stared at her for a minute, then shrugged, "Not badly enough to grow you another tail, little whoring Human Bitch."

Interestingly, she turned all sorts of strange colors, apparently unable to decide what part of his sentence offended her more. Eventually, and much to Bakura's disappointment (taunting her was one of his favorite pastimes), the bitch regained her composure, shoved the key out of sight, and turned to face the doorway.

"I'm bored," she complained, "You're no fun at all."

With that last declaration, the annoying demon wannabe stormed out of the cage room and disappeared. Feeling rather pleased with himself regardless, Bakura leaned back in his cage and smirked, twirling the fat metal key between his fingers all the while.

What a stupid bitch.

0

0

The clamor that had lured him back towards consciousness was gone now, and with his paranoia mostly satisfied, Yami decided it would be better if he were to go back to sleep. For some reason his entire body ached abominably...

"Wake up, you blithering idiot," snapped a voice, shaking off the comforting blanket of sleep that Yami had just been trying to pull back over himself.

Damn it, he was _tired!_ Intending to give whoever that was a piece of his mind - or at least a taste of his wing feathers - Yami rose to consciousness, and instantly regretted it.

What he had been feeling while he was asleep had been a moderate soreness, nearly a mild ache in comparison to the real thing. For a moment Yami could only stare up at the stone ceiling, wondering what in the _hells_ had happened to him. The ceiling, with its many dangling dark chains, offered no answers...Yami's memory kicked in them, and he sorely wished it hadn't.

So this was what it felt like to _survive_ a Hive-Queen's torture! For some reason, Yami had always assumed that this would be a good thing. Well, at least he hadn't betrayed any information - he would have been _dead_ otherwise.

"Is your feeble mind working yet? I don't have all day to wait for you," Bakura's voice rang out, knocking aside that trail of thought.

The white-haired Ban-Ile was looming over him, glaring. It took Yami another moment to track on what was happening; he was lying on the floor, and Bakura was crouched over him...and over _that_ way were the cages they had just been occupying, their doors securely shut. Yami would have been willing to bet that they were still firmly _locked_ as well.

"_There_ you are," Bakura said, starting to smirk, "Oh, and guess who you owe a debt to for saving your miserable life now?"

"...What are you talking about?" Yami wondered aloud, pressing a hand to his throat to try and ease the raw soreness a bit.

"Oh, your little friend was here a minute ago," Bakura replied, apparently enjoying the way Yami bristled at having HER named as one of his friends, "She had a key...I imagine she was probably going to molest you or something. Thus, I saved your miserable life."

"Why thank you," Yami retorted sarcastically, "...And we are outside of the cages...why, now?"

"You'd rather stay here?" Bakura raised an eyebrow, "I did mention that she HAD a key, didn't I?"

Deciding that that was not worth a response, Yami pushed himself off the floor and inspected his wings. The right one was serviceable - it felt like it had been stomped on a few times, but otherwise there was nothing seriously wrong with it. The left wing, on the other hand...

'_I suppose I should be grateful that it's still _attached,' Yami thought sourly.

He was unable to even begin wondering how he could straighten the horrible mess his poor wing had become. And it had only just healed before, on top of that...damn it all!

"If you want, I can probably find someone to remove it for you," Bakura offered, his tone completely unsympathetic, "No doubt there are a few dozen demon guards nearby who would love to lend you a claw or two..."

"Shut up and help me so we can get out of here," Yami growled back.

Bakura was more than happy to shove the wing back into its socket - Yami bit his tongue trying not to make a sound from that pain - but the break itself was more complicated. In the end, since they were both aware that a guard could come by at any time - or worse, Anzu might come back - Yami had to settle for wrapping his wing up with his robe.

The robe was made of khtki, a material discovered ages past and perfected by Ban-Ile until it became almost alive. Even though it had been badly ripped by the demon swarm's attack, Yami had simply kept it wrapped around his torso, under his leather human clothes. In the interval between then and now, the khtki-robe had regenerated. It would do until he could make a better brace for his wing out of something more solid.

Bakura was still wearing his own khtki-robe, and in the cavernous lair of the demons, the silvery material, along with Bakura's naturally bright hair and full-spread wings, nearly made the other Ban-Ile glow like a star.

That was part of the reason Yami had no problems with Bakura leading their way outside.

0

0

The plane's radio crackled as the message came through at last.

"KC-4, you are cleared to land on runway two," came the call from the control tower.

Everything had gone fairly smoothly. Once their destination had finally been agreed upon, it was really just a short hop to get from that remote mountain village to the next continent over. It had been a quiet flight as well, Kaiba purposely ignoring the existence of everyone else onboard, sans Mokuba. Not even the unsubtle comments from Jonouchi about his 'sulking' could provoke a response.

They had only needed to make one short stopover, for refueling, and it wasn't long before Kaiba's small jet was touching down in Sydney's International Airport. There was plenty of room in the small-aircraft section for Kaiba's plane, and for some reason even the strange sight of their group aroused no comment.

"This is such a pain in the ass," Jonouchi complained as their group trailed Kaiba through the airport, "First off, it's freezing as hell here. I know it's winter or something, but this is such a _pain_..."

"Compared to where you just were, this is cold?" Duke asked.

"...It's not like it's _warm_, either," Jonouchi retorted, "And how would you know? You got no sense of what's too cold or hot, from what I can tell!"

"I _do_ understand temperature differences, Jonouchi," Duke responded, his eyes narrowing, "I just don't happen to be affected by them in the same way as you humans, actually."

Walking just behind them, Yuugi mentally groaned. Kaiba's weird mood had spread, and Yuugi really wasn't up to playing peacemaker every five minutes... It probably wasn't helpful that Kaiba's mood seemed to be Yuugi's fault, somehow.

Honestly, the way Kaiba reacted - you'd think no one had ever beaten him in Duel Monsters before, or something...

"And the second reason this is a pain in the ass," Jonouchi continued, "Is that now we gotta take a train to get to where we're actually going. I mean, this can't be the only airport in the country, can it? Why couldn't we have landed closer, instead of having to go to all this trouble?"

"Don't ask me," Duke protested, "_Kaiba's_ in charge of planning this."

"And he's sulking like a brat about losing _one_ game of Duel Monsters," Jonouchi said, raising his voice so that Kaiba would be sure to hear him, "_One!_ It's not like being beat by Yuugi is the end of the world or anything! I lose to him all the time and I can take it like a man!"

Kaiba refused to respond to this bait. Jonouchi had to settle for shoving his hands in his pockets and doing some sulking of his own. Duke looked like he was seriously reconsidering the wisdom of coming along with this group. Kikki, perched as always on Yuugi's shoulder, quietly sniggered at the stupid antics of Yuugi's friends.

Eventually, Kaiba started responding to things like a normal human being again. This was a few hours later, their group riding a train that was steadily chugging towards their destination. Before this leg of the trip was even halfway over, Duke had excused himself 'for some fresh air', as the Ban-Ile had put it. Yuugi had seen him diving in and out of the cloud cover while matching the pace of the train, and had decided not to comment.

Ban-Ile seemed to dislike enclosed spaces quite a bit. Yuugi recalled that even before Jonouchi's underground sewer shortcut, Yami had been rather edgy about staying indoors. Of course, that could have just been part of an overall edginess due to the demons chasing him...well, if Duke thought that it was safe to shadow their train so closely from the air, surely that meant that there were no demons nearby.

Having the Ban-Ile flying around right outside was just as effective as putting out a big sign that screamed '**HERE WE ARE - COME AND KILL US!**' for every demon to see.

Bored from the long train ride and discouraged that he couldn't even start an argument with Kaiba to pass the time, Jonouchi was dozing in the seat next to Yuugi. Across the aisle, Mokuba was definitely asleep, leaning against his brother. Even Kikki was taking a nap, unable to fly around outside like Duke was even if he wanted to; the train would leave a little bird like him behind easily.

Yuugi wasn't certain what exactly drew his attention, but when he next looked towards Kaiba, the strange look that had appeared at the end of their duel was finally off the other's face. Not wanting to bring it back - the tension in their group was high enough without any more help - Yuugi decided to ask a question that had been bothering him for a while.

(**If we had landed closer we could do this faster**) Yuugi signed.

Kaiba watched the signs, eyes narrowed. For a minute, Yuugi thought that his question was going to go ignored.

"Even though I won't pretend to care about you and your need to travel to obscure locations," Kaiba finally replied, "Mokuba and I have our own concerns that require us to keep a low profile. A small private jet landing at a less than frequently busy airport after an international flight is far more noticeable than if that same jet lands in a large city equipped with a recognized international airport."

All throughout that statement, every inch of Kaiba's tone and body language clearly added: '_I assumed you had some modicum of intelligence, why do you need me to explain this to you?_'

Yuugi nodded in response, and once Kaiba acknowledged that Yuugi had in fact gotten it, he proceeded to ignore the rest of the world for the rest of the trip. Yuugi didn't really mind it - and if pretending that that duel hadn't happened would help things along, then that was what they were going to do.

0

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	18. The whole cannot be changed

Happy Passover, everyone! May your brisket be tender and your chocolate flow without end!

...That, and may your matzo taste better than cardboard. Instead of worse, like it usually does.

--

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

--

* * *

--

--

--

Thankfully for all their sanities, there was a large sign at the station they needed to get off at. It listed detailed directions to several different hotels and places were one could get a guided tour of Ayer's Rock. It seemed like the search for whichever Item was here, if any, would be a simple task.

The mob of people camped outside the modest building where one went to get a guided tour of Ayer's Rock put a damper on that bit of enthusiasm. Some of the people looked like hippies, but the rest were serious - glaring daggers at their group as they carefully made their way past the mob to see if it was possible to still get a tour.

It wasn't, of course. The flustered man running the tours explained that the mob was protesting against the tours, claiming that it was a violation of a sacred area for tourists to be allowed blithely through whenever they wanted.

"They're nuts, the lot of them," the man explained, "This mess only started up a week or two ago, but no one can get near Ayer's Rock anymore. As many of this lot that are right here, there's another batch the same size at every tour center, and even more camped right out there. Even if it looks otherwise, they're mostly students who've gone a little too far on 'protecting the environment', and the indigenous ones keep saying that we're offending their gods all the time. My cousin runs a business over in Mexico and he never has this problem with the locals..."

This one and none of any of the tour places could help them go see Ayer's Rock at all close, and every single one cautioned against their group taking themselves to see the rock up close. The people who were camped out close to Ayer's Rock - all locals, they were assured - had roughed up more adventurous tourists before.

At least the hotel had rooms for their group to spend the night in. Yuugi didn't sleep very well; Kikki had volunteered to go and check things out with the local wildlife. That way, they would know for certain whether or not it was worth trying to find a way over to the great rock, or whether their group should head for the next possible site. Yuugi knew that losing sleep was pointless, but he didn't want to miss it if Kikki came back during the night.

So of course, Kikki only returned at breakfast time. He also refused to say anything until Yuugi shared his food, which Yuugi was more than willing to do - this hotel offered complimentary 'continental breakfasts', which involved Western food. And though Yuugi did enjoy burgers, what Westerners considered breakfast foods didn't sit so well in his stomach.

Once the bird had satiated himself with Yuugi's scrambled eggs - grossing out Mokuba and Jonouchi in the process, even when Duke laughed at them. It wasn't that odd, birds ate other birds all the time - Kikki returned to his usual perch on Yuugi's shoulder. Preening his feathers, Kikki was able to quietly whisper in Yuugi's ear.

((**This all being shitty-weird-strange**,)) Kikki reported without preamble, ((**Too many flyers stay here with dirts. Dirts are weird-strange also.**))

Pretending to cough, Yuugi was able to cover his mouth long enough to quietly whisper (((**How are they weird?**))) without anyone else at the table noticing him speak.

((**Flyers here stay with dirts,**)) Kikki repeated, ((**That all is weird-strange. Flyers here sing of wisedirts, wisedirts who talk. No like you, not Flyer-No-Fly, no Flyertongue at all, but wisedirts can still talk. It too weird-strange.**))

Kikki ruffled out his feathers and preened a bit more before continuing.

((**When they say 'bout wisedirts, me ask for perches on Wisedirt-Rock. They say they tell wisedirts, and later they say wisedirts say 'Walk to Wisedirt-Rock when sun sets'. How we make these dirts do that, Yuugi-Flyer-No-Fly?**))

Before Yuugi could even fully process what Kikki had just told him, the bird had already come up with an idea.

((**Me know! Me tell Lying-scratchie what flyers and their wisedirts say! He no know 'bout Flyer-No-Fly, but shitty-beaky Lying-scratchie talk too. Stupid dirts listen to scratchies!))**

Immediately, Kikki put his plan into action. Taking off from Yuugi's shoulder, Kikki fluttered over and landed on Duke's wrist.

((**Shit-beaking Lying-scratchie! Me tell something to you!**)) Kikki yelled.

The Ban-Ile had been distracted, laughing at something Mokuba and Jonouchi were arguing over, but snapped his attention Kikki's way instantly. As Kikki told Duke the edited version of what he had just reported to Yuugi, Yuugi carefully paid them no attention at all. After all, it wasn't as if Yuugi could understand what Kikki was saying, now could he? No, that would be ridiculous.

Even so, Yuugi was still the only person at the table not to be surprised when Duke suggested that they head for Ayer's Rock on their own.

"Uh, this may just be me, but didn't that guy say the locals were beating up people who try doing that?" Jonouchi immediately pointed out.

"Then we should just try heading out when it gets dark," Duke shrugged, "They might miss us in the shadows, actually. Even if they stop us, we can say we were on a hike and got lost when the sun went down. Actually, I think we might be able to just force our way through if we really need to...and this way we wouldn't have gone all the way here and have nothing to show for it."

Since no one had a better plan then that, their group headed off on their little hike. They left the hotel in the middle of the afternoon. They had to start early because their hotel was rather far away from Ayer's Rock - and because no one would believe it if they just so happened to start their hike right when the sun was going down.

They made good distance, and were over halfway there by the time the sun started setting in earnest. It was starting to get truly dark when, as if out of nowhere, six very large and fairly angry native-looking men surrounded them.

"So, I suppose you tourists are here to check out the big old rock, right?" one of them growled.

"Who gave you permission to stomp in our sacred place, eh?" another added.

Tension was building rapidly, and both groups were readying themselves for a fight, when a voice from the distance broke into the scene. A group of three men were running towards them. The first group of six and the new group of three began talking rapidly in what must have been their native language, because none of their group could understand a word.

Yuugi had to correct that assumption - Duke was listening attentively, no doubt thanks to the apparent ability to understand all languages they heard that all Ban-Ile seemed to have. Seeing Duke start to relax, Yuugi decided that whatever must be happening must be a good thing for them after all and resolved to be patient.

After a short conversation, the first group of natives turned around and walked off, disappearing into the gathering twilight. The newer group turned to face them, their leader giving them a faintly apologetic grin.

"Hey, mates. You speak English?"

"Of course," Kaiba replied icily, as if that was the stupidest question he had ever been asked.

It was true that everyone in their group was at least passably fluent in English - they would have had a lot of trouble in this English-speaking country otherwise.

"Thought so, just needed to be sure. Sorry about those boys, they mean well. Now you five need to follow me. You must see Mori."

"And who is Mori?"

"Mori is the one you mates need to be speaking to," the man said, "He said that you wanted a better place to see things than the roof of your hotel, and we get a pretty good view on top of our little rock here, y'know."

With no other options aside from turning and going back, they followed the three men. Since they were heading for Ayer's Rock, they were content to be lead, even when it got very dark and the stars began appearing overhead in earnest.

Guided by their guides' instructions - none of them seemed to need to use flashlights, even in this darkness - once Ayer's Rock loomed directly overhead, they headed towards a spot where a campfire was twinkling brightly.

Sitting across the fire from them when they finally reached it was the person they called Mori.

--

Mori was an older-looking one of the natives, a man who was at least fifty years old. Mori was completely bald, but had a fairly long beard of curly hair. There were glass beads strung in it. Mori's skin was wrinkled and tanned, making it resemble well-worn leather.

Aside from these few traits, Mori seemed to be a perfectly unremarkable person. He was wearing a long, dusty red T-shirt and old blue jeans. Mori was also wearing sneakers which had seen much better days. In all, Mori did not have the look one would have expected of a powerful spiritual leader.

But a powerful spiritual leader, Mori most definitely was.

The leader of their three guides was standing just outside the firelight, and he calmly explained that Mori was in fact a very well-respected shaman. And because Mori was visiting Ayer's Rock, everyone who knew of him had banded together to block all tourism. Their reason? They just didn't want any tourists coming to bother Mori.

During this explanation, Mori calmly sat and let the other man explain things. He nodded at the words, and smiled to himself as if the entire thing delighted him, but otherwise said nothing at all.

After the guide finished his explanation, he and the other two men drew back out of sight, leaving their group alone with Mori. Mori continued to look them over, still smiling, and Kaiba lost his patience in less than three minutes.

"I didn't come here for some pathetic staring contest," Kaiba growled in irritation, "Let's get this _over_ with already."

"Oh, aye," Mori replied.

This was the first time Mori had spoken at all, and Kaiba seemed a little thrown by the nonchalant response. It seemed as if he hadn't actually expected Mori to answer him at all. It was another minute before anyone else could speak - having Mori just sitting there, smiling at them like that, was surprisingly unnerving somehow.

"...So, Mori," Duke began hesitantly, "Ah...should we tell you why we're here?"

"Oh no," Mori said, "Mori knows, Mori knows. Mori was talking a walkabout and he saw you coming to see him, yeah? Mori waited until the birds asked him to see you and then told his good friends to let you come, and here you are."

Mokuba and Jonouchi fidgeted in their seats, wondering if it was an unfamiliarity with English that was causing them to misunderstand Mori. Surely that was it.

"_Birds?_" Mokuba asked the others, speaking in Japanese to keep Mori from understanding in case he got offended, "What birds is he talking about?"

Duke looked a little embarrassed as he responded.

"I think I know what he means. This idea to come out here at sunset wasn't really mine, actually. Yuugi's bird told me that the birds in the area had said we'd be welcomed if we came out at sunset, actually."

"...Oh," Mokuba said.

Just by looking at him one could tell that he'd decided that it still made no sense, but he was going to go with it. Since Jonouchi still seemed confused, his brother didn't care enough to talk, and Yuugi just plain _couldn't_ talk, Mokuba turned back to Mori and asked, "Uh, you said you knew we were coming? How did you know? Where were you walking?"

Mori beamed at him.

"Oh, he is a clever lad," Mori said, "Mori was taking his walkabout in the Dreamtime, yeah? He takes long walks and so he knows about the CloudShield-Watertribe and what a precious little thing they were guarding. It's here in front of Mori now, though, so it isn't a secret anymore, is it?"

Mori seemed suddenly concerned about whether whatever he was talking about was a secret, genuinely concerned that he'd given offense. Duke, on the other hand, just seemed shocked.

"Eh? What's wrong, Duke?" Jonouchi asked.

Before Duke could say anything, Mori continued, "Really, though, Mori is here now and talking to the friends of the friend of _High Crags and Low Valleys Make No Difference For Flying_, so they can ask Mori and he will tell them all what they need to know."

None of them knew what exactly they should say to that - of their group, only Yuugi recognized what Mori had said as Kikki's name, and the fact that he knew that was not something that really needed sharing. Thankfully, Duke seemed to have shaken off his shock by this point, and he spoke next.

"I'll keep this simple. Is there a Sennen Item somewhere near here?"

"Besides yours?"

Mori laughed at his own joke, an oddly jolly, belly-shaking 'Ho-Ho Ho-Ho!' laugh.

"Oh yes," Mori continued, "There is, yeah? Mori's people, we share space with the WindSword-Watertribe. The White Man, when he came to the land of Mori's people, he showed the ShadowWing Folk that there was hunting here again. So Mori's people, the good friends of the WindSword-Watertribe, gives them safety in the bush. They are giving us back the precious treasure they were keeping for us, yeah?"

Mori paused, then nodded thoughtfully, as if to himself.

"And Mori is the one you wanted to see because Mori is the one who has it now."

Everyone in their group (aside from Kaiba, who was trying to ignore what was going on) sighed in relief. This was going to be simple, thank goodness!

As if in response to their relief, Mori nodded thoughtfully to himself, then shook his head knowingly. Suddenly, the old shaman was serious, even if he still looked just as calm and happy and friendly as before.

"Mori takes many long walks in the Dreamtime," Mori said, "He saw what you're doing, yeah? Mori knows that if you really mean to be going into the Great Dark Home of the ShadowWing Folk, you'll need more than two precious treasures of the ancestors."

"Eh?" Jonouchi blinked, "Well, I guess it can't be that many more that we need..."

"Aye," Mori nodded, "You need six."

"What...SIX!" Jonouchi exclaimed, "The hell! Why six?"

"Because the ShadowWing Folk have one and you need seven, yeah?" Mori explained.

"_What!_"

Now Duke seemed to be in shock again.

"They have one? Which one? When did they get it?"

For a minute the others wondered why Duke seemed so upset. Then they remembered that each of these artifacts was supposed to be guarded by a Ban-Ile tribe. If the demons had the artifact, it was a safe bet that that tribe was gone.

"No worries," Mori said reassuringly, "The SnowDagger-Watertribe lost their precious treasure, but they still live. In the great life-filled southlands near your own home, they stay in with their good friends, growing until they can win back the precious treasure that was taken from them."

With Duke looking less likely to hyperventilate, Mori calmly added, "Mori thinks you should be more careful then them, yeah?"

There was another noticeable pause. Mori, while being an..._interesting_ conversationalist, seemed quite content in letting his guests do the majority of the talking. Since those guests were expecting Mori to do the majority of the talking instead, these awkward pauses kept popping up. Finally, Mokuba took it upon himself to get the ball rolling again.

"Well, if we need six so badly," the younger Kaiba pointed out, "We might as well start here and get the second Sennen Item-thingy, right?"

Mori laughed again.

"Mori is glad to see you outside of the Dreamtime," the old shaman beamed, "Wise already! The very first part of any impossible journey is to put one of your feet in front of the other one, yeah? Come and sit by Mori."

Mokuba started to rise, only to hesitate and look at his brother. Kaiba's eyes narrowed, but he gave a curt nod. With his brother's approval secured, Mokuba walked around to sit closer to Mori. He did nothing to hide how confused he was, and Mori's next words did nothing to alleviate that confusion.

"You are the one Mori will give this precious treasure to. This precious treasure is very important to the WindSword-Watertribe and Mori's people, their good friends. You are the one who will be guarding it from now on, yeah?"

Everyone's eyes widened, even Kaiba's. Now REALLY confused, Mokuba could only nod. Mori reached towards his neck and pulled off something he'd been wearing the entire time, though no one had even noticed it until just this moment. Hanging from a rope was a strange looking object. It gleamed golden in the firelight. Just like the Sennen Eye, it seemed to be made from solid gold. Unlike the Eye, however, this Item was flat, and shaped just _so_...

"It's a key!" Mokuba exclaimed, before he could stop himself.

Instead of being annoyed at the interruption, Mori only seemed further delighted.

"Mori knew it! He knew you were the right one! This key is named 'Sennen Ankt'. This key will unlock the doorway into the Dreamtime. In the Dreamtime, the souls dance the old dances and sing the old songs. You can do more than you ever realized when you go for a walkabout in the Dreamtime."

Mori handed the Sennen Ankt over to Mokuba, who carefully hung it around his own neck by the rope. Once it was securely in place, Mokuba asked another question, about something that had been bugging him.

"Um...but what IS the Dreamtime?"

"Oh, you'll understand when you see it, yeah?" Mori replied, "The Dreamtime is wonderful place, and Mori hopes he'll walk there with you one day. For now, you have what you came for from Mori and Mori has said what he needed to say and now we are done."

The second the word 'done' left Mori's mouth, their three guides reappeared. Somehow, the three men managed to usher their five guests away from the fire where Mori continued sitting. A little dazed from everything they had just heard, not even Kaiba protested being lead back to their hotel, surrounded by an ever-increasing number of natives who knew they were leaving the rock and making certain that none of them tried sneaking back unnoticed.

As might be expected from the late night, most of their group woke up a little late the next morning. Over breakfast, one of the hotel staff came by to ask if they were still interested in going on an Ayer's Rock tour.

Mysteriously, every last one member of the groups that had blocked tourism in the area had vanished overnight. The staffer was certain that this news would be of interest to their interesting (not to mention wealthy) foreign guests, but instead none of them seemed to have any interest whatsoever.

To the staffer's further dismay, the group calmly informed him that they were about to check out, having already booked a ride on the morning train back to Sydney. It left the poor man with terrible sense of 'protesters are worse for business than anyone ever imagined'.

--

Back in Sydney, the argument of 'where to go next' was revived. Inside the extremely fancy hotel suite they had gotten - courtesy of, as everything else was, of Seto Kaiba's seemingly bottomless wallet - the argument ran long and loud.

It probably shouldn't have surprised them, but the biggest complication of all seemed to be Kaiba himself. It was all well and good to sit back and ignore their planning when it basically had nothing to do with him, but now that Mokuba was stuck carrying one of those 'stupid golden trinkets', as Kaiba had called them, Kaiba had a vested interest in where they were going and what happened when they got there.

Unfortunately, Kaiba and Jonouchi both shared a vested interest in making each other's lives an annoying hell.

Thus, what should have been a relatively simple matter of decision-making was turned tedious and angry. Twice, Mokuba had to send off a member of the hotel staff that had come by to investigate the source of all the noise. Embarrassed at having to do so, and still a little shook up about having to carry a powerful magical treasure around with him, Mokuba was not in such a great mood himself.

Because of this, Mokuba decided to make the others stop arguing in the only way he could think of. And really, since one of the most argumentative people in the argument was his older brother, Mokuba knew that it was only fair for him to do it. Seto would practically verbally castrate anyone else who tried to do what Mokuba was about to do.

Stepping in between his brother and Jonouchi, just when they paused to take a breath, Mokuba took a deep breath and yelled, "_TIME OUT!_"

That got them listening. Mokuba wished he'd had a camera set up, actually - Seto and Jonouchi were making the exact same dumbfounded expression.

"New rule!" Mokuba added, moving quickly before someone told him to sit down and be quiet, "Only people holding one of these Item-thingys gets to decide where we go next! And since that's only me and Duke, and Duke already said he doesn't care, I say we're going to the Amazon."

They were ALL staring at him now. Feeling his face heat up, Mokuba tried not to quit when he was on a roll.

"Okay, we're decided! Let's go!"

Once everyone stopped staring at him with such weird looks on their faces, and Seto stopped making that weird noise every time he tried to talk - _screw_ the regular camera, Mokuba wished he'd brought the video recorder along! - they still had to wait until the next day to leave, in order for Seto make arrangements. For starters, the little private jet, though still a perfectly fine plane, was not suited to making a quick, nonstop-transpacific flight.

Ah, well. At least it was only the next day. The way his brother and Jonouchi had been going, they wouldn't have gone anywhere until at least next week.

And so the rest of Mokuba's day was spent happily sight-seeing.

--

The next morning found their group waiting at the terminal in the airport.

"Well, at least Kaiba's springing for the tickets," Jonouchi reasoned, "We're gonna be First Class, all the way!"

"Imbecile."

"The hell! What the hell's your problem this time!"

"Are they going to keep doing this the entire trip?" Duke quietly wondered, "Because if they are, I can easily meet you guys on the other side of the ocean."

"No fair," Mokuba protested, "If we have to deal with this, then so do you, Duke. No cheating."

"We ain't taking your damn plane anymore," Jonouchi continued, ignoring the byplay, "You can't call me stupid just because I assumed you were too much of a stuck-up dumbass to want to ride in the 'Poor People' section of the plane."

Kaiba snorted, apparently not that interested in keeping this particular argument going.

"Very well. I'm not questioning your intelligence because of that."

"Oh good," Jonouchi said.

"I'm questioning your intelligence because you haven't looked behind you even once," Kaiba elaborated.

"Eh? What does -"

Turning around, Jonouchi's words spluttered to a halt. Sitting pristine in the sunshine just outside the window was a jumbo jet. It had the same color scheme as the little private jet that they had been using so far, and that plus Kaiba's smug look of satisfaction was all the information anyone needed to realize that this was the bigger plane Kaiba had arranged for them.

--

As this was a cross-ocean trip, they all knew it was going to take a while. It was a little complicated to explain it, what with the differences in time zones and all. So, to keep confusion to a minimum, they just kept saying it would 'take a while'.

They were doing it because they figured that he couldn't understand it, and had decided that they'd rather not spend time explaining something to someone who would never get it. This attitude, Jonouchi definitely resented.

At least Yuugi knew better then that. Unfortunately in this case, Yuugi really wasn't one to rock the boat much more than necessary. So Jonouchi couldn't fault him for just playing along with the others' assumptions.

But by no realistic standard was he, Jonouchi, an idiot. His education had been the far more practical variety one got on the street, true...though it hadn't always been that way.

'_Ah, hell,_' Jonouchi grumbled to himself, '_Now that damn Kaiba's got me thinking about THAT again. Stupid bastard._'

He hoped his sister liked the postcard. It had been a challenge, buying it and mailing it without any of the others catching on. Jonouchi didn't really expect that she'd believe he'd actually been in Sydney - or Hong Kong, for that matter - but that didn't mean he wasn't going to send her something anyway.

For the time being, Jonouchi decided to just kick back and relax, now that they were on Kaiba's ridiculously huge jumbo jet. Who the hell needed a plane this damn big for anything, anyway? Aside from the five of them, plus the four pilots Mokuba had said were running the damn thing, and Yuugi's pet bird, there was no one else onboard. It was positively creepy, when you thought about it.

Mokuba, unlike his brother, was a pretty awesome guy. He also liked to play the same card game that he and Yuugi liked, which was a plus. Yuugi had gotten him interested in the game, but Jonouchi had a feeling that Mokuba had learned to play because Kaiba (the bastard!) liked to play it. Kaiba, liking something that Jonouchi liked - actually _liking_ something the way a normal human being would like something? It was enough to put Jonouchi off the game, almost.

At the moment, Mokuba was getting some tips and strategies from Yuugi, with Duke as translator. Yuugi's translator...that used to be Jonouchi's job. It had helped that Jonouchi was a quick study of anything he tried to learn, once he put his mind to it at least. Yuugi had taught him how to read sign language, and Jonouchi had taught Honda, and then it had just been something between friends, almost...

Ah, hell. Now he was getting all sappy and sentimental. What he needed to be thinking about was whether or not the house had been repossessed yet. Jonouchi hoped it hadn't, considering that he'd promised that Yuugi's stuff would be safe there. Then again, it could just be toothpicks instead...not much of a comfort...

A dark shadow passed over the window he was leaning against, startling Jonouchi from his thoughts. Curious, Jonouchi peered out the window, wondering what the hell that had been. To make a shadow like that, whatever it was must have been awfully close...or awfully big...and what flew this high, if it wasn't a plane - no way it could have been another plane, not that close!

The only flying thing besides their own plane that should be this high would have to be Yuugi's little pet bird. And said little bird was perched on Yuugi's shoulder like always, eyeing the card game with an almost skeptical expression on its little bird face.

Well, no point in telling the others about it. They would only think he'd imagined it, and Kaiba (the bastard!) would be a bastard about it, and that would just suck. And it wasn't like Jonouchi was really worried about that shadow or anything.

Really.

--

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	19. We have already lost that chance

It's that time again...update time!

By the way, not to be pushy or anything, but I seriously DO get an alert when you put this story into your Favorites and/or on your Alert list. It's nice that you like my story so much...but what about it is so interesting? I can't tell unless you let me know! And not knowing makes me a frustrated authoress...

--

Well, I still do appreciate that you all like my story! Never doubt that! So here's another chapter for you all to read!

--

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

--

* * *

--

--

--

Traffic on the railway was pretty light this time of night - or day, if you counted by the clock instead of where the sun was. Whenever it was, there weren't many others to see them, and none of the ones that did actually cared.

Which was just fine with him. Bakura was having more than enough trouble dealing with Yami without the sudden addition of humans and their annoying need to know EVERYTHING. It was aggravating, to say the least...really, the last thing either of them needed was to be harangued by nosy, unwanted humans.

The other had kept the pace well enough for a few hours, but Bakura had known from the start that he couldn't keep it up, no matter how hard he tried to pretend that he was completely fine. As if anyone could expect him to be FINE! Yami had been through a very bad series of problems, one right after another - when you thought about it, it was probably a miracle that Yami had even made it to the outskirts of human civilization before he'd quite promptly collapsed.

To be honest, it was pathetically obvious that Yami was close to the edge. At this rate, it would only take something relatively minor to push him straight to Going on them. Hells, it would probably happen at the most inconvenient point in time, too. The universe was quite proud of that sadistic sense of humor it had.

Bakura had 'found' some human clothing and other things to disguise them with, and it had worked perfectly, even with Yami's ruined wing unable to retract. Yami's lack of consciousness could be explained by the early hour instead of the actual reason, and it helped that no humans really wanted to look at other humans or anything else when they had to get up too early in the morning.

The human contraption rattled and bumped in an uniquely irritating human fashion, but it made good time nonetheless. Bakura sniggered underneath his breath a few hours into the ride. Yes, the Human Bitch should be desperately leading some trackers to find them, and they were passing overhead...ah, it should be right about - _now_.

Too bad they were going in the opposite direction...too bad for _them_, rather.

Turning to eye his erstwhile companion, Bakura saw that Yami had forced himself back into consciousness. He would really be better off resting for now...but _no_, the fool had to be paranoid, didn't he?

"...Where are we now?" Yami asked, after glancing around the train car and seeing nothing he recognized aside from Bakura.

"Where are we now? Let's see...they call this area 'Siberia' if I recall correctly," Bakura said, indicating the terrain passing by the windows, "We're taking the long way around. That way, your little friend and her boyfriends are certain to get lost."

"Ah," Yami replied.

The other looked less alert with every passing moment; his mind retreating back to slumber now that his precious paranoia had been momentarily satisfied.

"Sleep it off," Bakura advised, "Your feeble brain will start working again after a little rest."

"Will it?"

Yami sounded very much out of it by now, but since he seemed so damned determined to stay conscious - the idiot was bound and determined to nothing short of killing himself - Bakura decided to indulge him in conversation. It would, of course, be _terribly_ boring; Yami was too exhausted to think straight or get properly riled up.

"Of course it will. I said it will, and I'm always right." Bakura told the other Ban-Ile pointedly.

"Oh? That's nice."

'_He really _is_ out of it,_' Bakura thought, frowning, as Yami's drowsy attention shifted to fiddling with the buttons of the big furry overcoat he was now wearing.

At least he wasn't out of it enough to ask where it and the other human-styled pieces of clothing had come from. There _was_ a line between ignorance and complete stupidity.

--

The plane kept on flying without a hitch, even when it got dark outside and everyone decided to go to sleep. The seats were much cushier than they'd be on a regular airplane, which was nice.

The problem started with Jonouchi waking up in the middle of the night. He needed to use the bathroom. After a bit of wandering around, Jonouchi found what he considered a stupid design flaw with this jumbo jet: the bathrooms were in the front.

Normally this would not be a problem, but right at the beginning of the flight, Kaiba had staked out a spot for himself right in the front part of the plane. That meant that to go to the bathroom, Jonouchi would have to walk right past where Kaiba was - not an appealing prospect.

His bladder wasn't in the mood to hear it, though, and so Jonouchi trudged towards the front, determined to get it over with. Much to Jonouchi's surprise, there was no problem after all: Kaiba was fast asleep.

That was weird enough - Kaiba was _always_ working on something, and Jonouchi had wondered if the guy even knew _how_ to sleep - but Kaiba was definitely asleep, and Mokuba was asleep in the very next seat. Oh, and they were leaning against each other, that whole row of seats bathed in moonlight from the windows...damn, where WAS a camera when you needed one? This was perfect blackmail material right here!

Stifling a snicker, Jonouchi continued on to the bathroom. His amused mood turned back into an annoyed one when he discovered that the bathroom was just as tiny as any other airplane bathroom would have been. The hell? A giant jet like this, and Kaiba couldn't even get a decently-sized bathroom on it? What, was this a hand-me-down plane or something?

The next problem appeared when Jonouchi stepped out of the bathroom. He stumbled as the floor seemed to lurch under his feet. Okay, not only could Kaiba not afford a decently-sized bathroom on this plane, but he couldn't even afford pilots that would avoid doing stupid things like...Jonouchi didn't know, maybe ramming birds in midair, _with_ the plane, or something?

...Jonouchi felt a serious sense of deja vu. Of course they couldn't be ramming birds, the only bird that could or should be this high was Yuugi's. There were other things that flew, so maybe it was something else. That meant that if the pilots WERE being idiots they could easily be ramming other flying things. Other flying things...like bats, or other planes, or maybe Ban-Ile (though Jonouchi doubted this one), or maybe - maybe _demons_...

Could demons _get_ this high? Could they catch up to a moving jumbo jet?

...Apparently so - the _thing_ that just flew past a nearby window was WAY too big to be any damn bird.

'_Oh _shit_, we're screwed_,' was the thought that immediately ran through his head.

A hand landed on his arm. Tense as he already was, Jonouchi might have broken the guy's jaw on reflex if he hadn't recognized who it was. And even then, he still might have done so, if only out of principle.

"Kaiba," he growled, keeping his voice low.

Much to Jonouchi's surprise, Kaiba said nothing in response. Now that he was looking at him, Jonouchi could see that Kaiba was concentrating, clearly trying to listen for something...Jonouchi took a stab at listening as well, but was not greatly encouraged when their efforts were rewarded by a distinct _thump_ sound. It was coming from the top of the plane, and was followed shortly afterwards by another _thump_, then two more...

"...If those were seagulls, then your pilot _sucks_," Jonouchi whispered once he was certain that no more thumping noises were coming.

Kaiba glared at him, but didn't rise to the bait. And it was stupid of him to try and bait the other right now anyway - Jonouchi had a VERY bad feeling what was making those sounds, and wasting time while arguing would be highly idiotic.

If it turned out that the pilots had some obsession with squishing flying critters using a jumbo jet after all...Jonouchi would happily laugh his ass off, Kaiba would look like an idiot for hiring the people in the first place, and all would be well.

Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

--

The cockpit on this jumbo jet was nothing so spectacular; only a couple of joined cabins, perched up high at the front of the plane. They could be accessed via a narrow metal staircase which stayed folded away when not in use. Ignoring the fact that the imbecile had decided to tag along, Seto pulled down the stairs and climbed up to the door that would lead to the cockpit.

Just as Seto mounted the final steps, some rather loud but unidentifiable sounds rang out from just behind the door. Undaunted, he turned the handle, whereupon the noises cut themselves off instantly.

Opening the door, both teens looked inside to find...absolutely nothing.

There was nothing strange-looking lurking about. They could see all the way to the controls in the cockpit, and there was nothing there at all.

In _fact_...

"...Uh, didn't ya have some guys up here before? Like, to steer the plane or something?" the blond asked.

Not even bothering to answer, even as his suspicions began rising steadily, Seto strode through the door and headed towards the cockpit.

There should be four people up here: two to fly, and another pair to cover for the first pair when they needed a break. There were bunks up here, along with other necessities that pretty much covered any need a pilot might have. Seto had seen the four men himself before takeoff, but the door to the cockpit itself stood wide open, revealing that the only thing flying THIS jet was the autopilot.

Seto had paused just at this door when the blond fool, who had kept trailing along behind him for some reason, went stock-stiff. There was a low growl from behind, near to where they had entered, and the imbecile sprang to the side, yelping in shock.

Not being a complete idiot, Seto was in motion before the growl had half finished. Springing back as well - in the opposite direction from the imbecile - Seto was therefore safely out of harm's way when an enormous THING sprang at the two of them from behind. The thing passed through the air between them, snarling, and crashed into the controls in the cockpit with a displeased yowl.

Seto had just enough time to register that a giant monstrous-looking thing with very large claws and fangs and leathery wings had just tried to KILL him before the floor tilted underneath his feet. Of course, the monstrous-looking thing - Seto didn't really want to believe it could have been an actual _monster_ - had landed in the cockpit, on the controls, and now it was playing havoc with their flight path while the autopilot was unable to counteract...

An angry snarl suggested that moving away from the cockpit might be a good idea after all. As the floor continued to slowly tilt further towards vertical, Seto resorted to pulling himself along the wall to get some distance. In his peripheral vision, he noted that the imbecile had started doing the same - at least that fool wasn't completely stupid.

Hearing some new noises, Seto risked a glance back. The monstrous-looking thing was in the cockpit doorway now, claws digging into the metal flooring with disturbing ease. It was staring at its would-be prey, clearly estimating the distance for a jump and deciding on which of them it would be going after first.

However, because the monstrous-looking thing was no longer lying splayed out over the controls, the autopilot was now free to correct their flight path. It did so with disturbing promptness for a jumbo jet, whipping their steep dive into a steep climb.

This sent the many loose things in the plane, including the passengers, sailing towards the back.

--

It was only when the plane finally started leveling out that Yuugi, Duke, and Mokuba could make their way up to the front to see what could possibly be going on. Once they got closer, they discovered Kaiba and Jonouchi lying in a heap near the bottom of some metal stairs. The door at the top of the staircase looked a little weathered - as if something large and heavy had just slammed into at high speed.

"What's going on with our pilots, Seto?" Mokuba asked as soon as the pair on the floor regained their senses.

"_What_ pilots?" Jonouchi snapped, before Kaiba could say anything, "There ain't nothing up there but that damn demon! That thing almost killed us!"

"Damn it!" Duke cursed, staring up at the battered door, "They picked up our trail!"

"How could have?" Mokuba asked.

He was starting to feel very uneasy - there were monsters after the treasures they were trying to find, and the Sennen Ankt was starting to feel _very_ heavy, hanging around his neck...

"How could they have?" Mokuba repeated urgently, "We're the only ones who even know we're _looking_ for these things!"

"Don't look at me - If you wanna know, ask THEM," Jonouchi retorted, jerking a thumb towards the door.

It rattled suddenly in its hinges, and a vicious snarl rang out. Kaiba, who had still seemed a little out of it while he tried to adjust to the idea of monster attacks, suddenly came back into focus. After all, these monsters were after those Item...things, and since Mokuba was now carrying one, that made Mokuba their target. Kaiba was completely comfortable with the concept of protecting his younger brother, even from monsters.

"There's no other controls to direct this jet from, aside from those inside the cockpit," Kaiba said shortly, "Even if we could do something to blow out those rooms, we'd only crash. There should be parachutes -"

Duke shook his head.

"No demon would come chasing down a Sennen Item on its own. The rest of the swarm must be outside, circling the plane to make certain we don't try bailing out. Even if we could get past them, they'd rip the plane apart to find us, then come back to see if we'd jumped out back here. Unless you have a very small and very fast boat handy...?"

Kaiba's eyes narrowed.

"Guess the only thing we can do is kick their asses off the hard way," Jonouchi said, slamming a fist into the palm of his other hand, "Teach those bastards that they can't mess with us! I've been kinda feeling _bored_ lately anyway..."

In anticipation, Jonouchi cracked his knuckles. Kaiba made a soft scoffing noise under his breath, at which Jonouchi glared. Ignoring all of this, Duke moved to stand beside the two. Even though there wasn't much room for his wings, Duke felt that he could still be useful in a fight.

Of course, the demon behind the door, still snarling and doing its best to claw its way through, was more than willing to fight _back_. Wisely, Mokuba and Yuugi ducked behind the other three, Kikki fluttering and ready to help when needed.

After a few more hefty blows, the door gave way completely. It rattled its way down the staircase, forcing Duke and Jonouchi to jump to the side as it continued onwards to crash loudly into a nearby row of seats. Much to their group's dismay, not one but _three_ large and very dangerous-looking demons pushed through the doorway to face their group.

Following just behind those three was yet another demon, this one boasting the same slimmer lines Yuugi recognized from the tracker demon in the sewer back home in Domino. The tracker demon stuck its snout out and took several deep breaths, clearly checking their scent. Then it turned its head up towards the broken doorway and rasped something unintelligible.

With this sound, a fourth demon appeared. This new demon was unlike any that anyone in their group had ever seen before. It was slimmer than the bigger demons, but bigger than the tracker demon. From the waist down it had no legs, instead slithering along on a solid, snakelike tail. Its face looked more human than the other demons as well, with a very short snout and only a small set of protruding fangs. The rather small but definite protrusions on its chest suggested that this demon was actually female.

The demon slithered down the staircase, the thin metal steps creaking and bending under its weight. Duke went pale and seemed to choke.

"What? Is this thing that bad?" Jonouchi hissed at him.

"Of course it's bad," Duke hissed right back, "Female demons are _always_ bad!"

The new demon - the apparently female demon - could hear all this perfectly well, since there was nothing else making any noise anyway. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, she fixed them all - especially Duke - with a scornful expression.

"_This_ batch of pitiful weaklings are who we are called to hunt?" she hissed, "Even our most beloved Hive-Queen's disgusting half-breed _pet_ should have been able to take care of this matter on her own...at this rate, there shall likely be a new Hive-Queen about..."

Despite the fact that all eyes were on her, no one saw the female demon move. One second she was perched just behind the three bigger demons, hissing contempt; the next second, she had knocked Duke to the floor and pinned him, her tail wrapped around his chest and neck to hold him.

Kaiba and Jonouchi, who were standing closest, jumped back with shocked curses. The female demon didn't even look at them, clearly deciding that the mere humans present were not worth her attention in any way.

"Not even a lone Ban-Ile could be cause for a Lady to so demean herself by hunting," she snarled, scowling down at Duke.

The scowl softened, turning into a VERY unpleasant smile.

"Though a warm meal would be _quite_ nice after all the trouble of hunting you pathetic creatures down," she said, "And I have the means to ensure that it will be such a pleasant meal...for ME..."

In response to the female demon's gruesome humor, the other demons laughed. Jonouchi growled, and might have done something stupid, but there was a sudden distraction as the female demon revealed something that was likely to be very, very dangerous.

Suddenly the demon was holding in her clawed hands a very unusual golden device. It was shaped as a pair of scales, all in gold, and boasted a stylized design matching that found on the Sennen Eye...

"A - Sennen Item!" Duke gasped, forcing his words past the choke-grip the demon's tail had on his neck.

"I _thought_ you might recognize this," she replied, nearly purring now, "Do you know what this does, little flitterling?"

Her grip on his neck tightening with every second he took to reply, Duke quickly shook his head. The others were watching this in shock and horror. Mori had told them, warned them that the demons had taken one of the Items...but who could have expected that they would use it on them so soon? Especially since every one of them, even Kaiba, had a feeling that the powers of these Items would do something very bad.

"Hmm," the demon smirked, "Shall I demonstrate it for you? Yes, let's try it on all you pathetic creatures! These Scales shall devour your pathetic _souls_, and then I shall devour your pathetic _flesh_."

The Sennen Scales started to glow with a bright golden light. In the same instant, a curious wave of cold seemed to sweep over their group. They felt colder and colder as the Scales grew brighter and brighter. The female demon was _laughing_ -

Her laughter turned into outranged snarls and hissing as two more bright lights joined that of the Scales - from Duke, the Eye, and from Mokuba, the Ankt. Reacting to the magic of their fellow Sennen Item, these other Items began glowing just as brightly, causing some of the unnatural cold to recede.

The demons roared, lunging forward towards the other two Items in an attempt to stop the reaction. But it was far too late for that. The glows grew brighter with amazing speed, until at last there was a great flash and roar of power and fire.

From outside, it looked exactly as if the plane was blowing up.

--

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	20. Because the time left to us was short,

Happy Memorial Day!

--

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

--

* * *

--

--

--

Damn it, this was NOT a great way to wake up.

Jonouchi groaned and pushed himself off the ground, wincing in the bright sunlight that was happily attempting to sear his retinas. He felt like a punching bag who was having a bad day, damn it all...

Sluggishly, his mind starting working again, tracking on some rather glaring inconsistencies in his memory. Specifically, the fact that the last place he remembered being was on an airplane, and on top of that, it had been night at the time...

Taking in his surroundings, only one thought went through Jonouchi's mind.

Where in the HELL was he?

It was someplace bright and dry, full of many large, pointy-looking rocks, and with no sign of human habitation as far as the eye could see. Definitely not a jumbo jet. And, Jonouchi was disturbed to realize, he was all alone to boot.

Well, at least he wasn't dead. The last thing Jonouchi remembered involved magical items going haywire and ferocious, angry demons. Really, he could have been dead, or worse...unless he actually WAS dead and this was where he was going to spend his afterlife...

"Agh! Stop thinking about that!"Jonouchi told himself, knocking himself on the head for emphasis, "I ain't dead, this ain't hell, and somebody's gotta be around here someplace!"

A loud chirp from behind interrupted him. Turning, Jonouchi discovered that he was being watched by a very familiar looking blue bird. Jonouchi felt relieved - by now, he was certain that he'd recognize that bird anywhere.

"Thank god," Jonouchi exclaimed, "I thought I would go insane out here all by myself!"

...Wait. He was talking to a bird. Didn't that technically mean he was already insane? Even if Duke and that crazy Pegasus guy had acted like this bird was intelligent, and hey, those two weren't insane...well, at least _Duke_ wasn't insane...

"This still feels stupid," Jonouchi muttered to himself.

Then he looked Yuugi's bird straight in the eye. It was watching him with what could have been a skeptical expression - as if it were just as skeptical of Jonouchi's current level of sanity as Jonouchi himself was. Of course, it if was intelligent, then it really WAS looking at him skeptically...Jonouchi decided to put the idea to a test.

It wasn't like he had anything else to do at the moment, right?

"You...you can understand me, right?" He addressed the bird.

It tilted its head, peering back at him inquisitively.

"Duke, and that other Ban-Ile guy Pegasus - they acted like you could understand them an' stuff," Jonouchi continued, "So, am I right?"

The bird watched him for a moment, then nodded. The nod involved moving its entire body up and down, but it was _definitely_ a nod. Even though he'd been mentally preparing for the idea that it might be true, it still caught Jonouchi off-guard.

Shrugging his confusion to wait for another time, the blond asked the bird, "If you're here, that means Yuugi is around here someplace too, right?"

This time the bird shook its head, definitely saying 'no'.

"Oh great," Jonouchi groaned, "Damn...is there _anybody_ near wherever the hell we are right now?"

This time Yuugi's pet bird started chirping. It fluttered into the air, flew off a little ways, then circled back and chirped at him some more.

"You gonna lead the way? Awesome!" Jonouchi grinned.

It took a while to get past all the rocks. The bird didn't seem to factor Jonouchi's distinct lack of wings into its directions right away. After Jonouchi got stuck and had to backtrack three or four times, though, the bird seemed to finally get it and the trail was fairly smooth after that...no big rocks that Jonouchi couldn't climb over with enough effort, at least.

Jonouchi followed the bird, until it landed on a rather tall rock next to the trail Jonouchi was following it on. Confused about why it had stopped, Jonouchi made his way around that tall rock to find himself in another wide, rocky clearing, much like the one he had woken up in. This clearing was a little different then the other one had been, however; sprawled out on his side and very much unconscious in the middle of _this_ clearing was one Seto Kaiba.

Instead of following his first inclination - which was to ask Yuugi's pet bird to find someone else from their group instead of Kaiba - Jonouchi rushed over, surprising himself by actually being worried. Kaiba was alive, belaying Jonouchi's worst fear at the sight.

He was, however, firmly unconscious and looked fairly sickly to boot.

"Oh great," Jonouchi groaned, "This I need!"

Turning back towards the bird, Jonouchi watched as it fluttered down from the rock, landing a few feet away from where Kaiba was laying. It stared at the teen billionaire, the bird's feathers standing up on end almost.

'_At least I'm not the only one that thinks this is disturbing_,' Jonouchi thought, '_Okay, what do I do? He's breathing, his heart's beating...somehow I don't think shaking him's going to be much help, but what else can I do here?_'

"Yo, Kaiba," Jonouchi nudged him, "Wake the hell up."

As might have been expected, Kaiba did not wake the hell up. Jonouchi scowled - as much more pleasant the arrogant brunette was when he wasn't awake, Jonouchi couldn't even try to get the two of them out of here without knowing what was wrong with Kaiba. Mokuba would probably be pissed if, during the process of trying to save Kaiba's stupid life, Jonouchi killed him instead, even by accident.

"I know you got a harder head than this, bastard," Jonouchi growled, "Wake UP, you bastard - I ain't gonna be the reason you don't get back to Mokuba, dumbass!"

After this and several other similar diatribes (Jonouchi felt a little better for getting them off his chest), Kaiba finally stirred. He was still pale and looked like hell, Jonouchi noted, but at least the bastard probably wasn't going to up and die on him after all.

Kaiba's first words were fairly predictable.

"Where's Mokuba?"

"Probably in better condition than you are, bastard," Jonouchi cheerfully replied, "I don't think there's anybody here but you an' me an' the bird."

The bird chirped. It was still eyeing Kaiba, clearly wondering - just as Jonouchi was - whether or not the bastard would end up keeling over after all.

"You look like shit," Jonouchi added, "Did you hit your head on something or what?"

Kaiba hissed something that Jonouchi couldn't hear. Judging from the bastard's expression, that was just as well. Ignoring any assistance - not that Jonouchi _wanted _to assist that bastard - Kaiba pushed himself off the ground and, much to Jonouchi's shock, immediately sank back down again, heaving and puking.

'_He's in worse shape then I thought_,' Jonouchi thought, mentally wincing, '_Damn, damn! I need to get him to a doctor or something fast...Mokuba'll kill me if I let the bastard die!_'

As soon as Kaiba seemed finished with throwing up, Jonouchi reached over and started helping him back to his feet. In return, Kaiba fixed him with a look that was positively poisonous. Jonouchi happily glared right back at him.

"Don't touch me," Kaiba hissed.

"Like anybody would _want_ to," Jonouchi retorted, "it's just that for some reason, Mokuba might be pissed at me if I leave you out here to die, so I'm going to save your stupid ass. Got a problem with that?"

Not bothering to wait for an answer, Jonouchi looked towards the bird, who was still sitting on the ground and watching them.

"Hey, bird," Jonouchi told it, "You think you can find some people to help us out here?"

The bird chirped a bit before doing that full-body nod thing again and taking off. It fluttered a little ways ahead, clearly intending to lead them to civilization. Jonouchi started off, still propping Kaiba up, and when he realized that the other was giving him a very incredulous look, the blond felt his face heat up.

"Don't you even start, bastard."

--

This thing was starting to turn into a really unpleasant trip. When he'd finally woken up, Mokuba was quite dismayed to find himself in the middle of a gigantic jungle, all alone.

Fine, maybe he wasn't so alone - Yuugi had been sprawled out cold a few feet away - but waking up feeling like he could barf just from the effort of breathing had kept Mokuba from noticing that fact until Yuugi had started poking him. They had both been dismayed about being mysteriously separated from the others, but had decided that it was more important to find some civilization in the area before they worry about anyone else.

Unfortunately, they were in the heart of whatever jungle they'd landed in, and having picked a direction at random to walk in, Mokuba was worried that they were just heading deeper and deeper in, never to escape.

It might have been a nice walk, otherwise. This jungle place was full of big plants and cool-looking bugs. After a while, though, Mokuba remembered that jungle places like this usually had big predators and stuff. Including some predators that...well, wouldn't they find a couple of little humans running around to be a tasty snack?

Sharing this idea with Yuugi did nothing to ease Mokuba's worry - apparently, Yuugi had been worried about the same thing himself. The bird Seto had gotten for him in Bird Street was gone, Mokuba realized, and Yuugi had already been worried that it had been eaten by something...their pace slowed as they started checking behind every tree before they passed it, worried if something really _was_ lying in wait to eat them...

"Ah-HA! Found you!"

And so, when something with huge white wings fell out of the canopy above and dropped down right on top of them, was it any wonder that Mokuba screamed hysterically?

Thankfully, the something with huge white wings turned out to be Duke. The Ban-Ile was alive and well, even with the new set of impressive-looking bruises that that female demon had left around his neck. Duke was also a bit unhappy with being screamed at, but he understood the circumstances. Once everyone was calm again, Duke explained how he'd also appeared in this jungle, though in a different spot. After waking up, Duke had flown over the trees to get his bearings.

"I went high enough to see some pretty definite landmarks," Duke said, "I think I recognize some from that atlas on the plane, actually. If I'm right, we've landed somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest. Guess that means we ended up where you wanted to go after all, huh Mokuba?"

Duke and Yuugi both seemed to think that was funny. Mokuba scowled, and wondered if he could change his destination choice somehow - he hadn't realized just how _big_ this place was! How would they ever find anything hidden here?

"There are some old buildings just over that way, actually," Duke continued, pointed off in the general direction Yuugi and Mokuba had already been heading, "We might as try to figure where to go from there."

"Good plan," Mokuba agreed, "My feet already hurt from all this walking around anyway."

Duke lead the way to the old buildings he had spotted from the air. The old buildings were actually old ruins - overgrown and collapsed in some areas, but otherwise still fairly sturdy. Almost as soon as they got there, the three of them realized that all the stuff inscribed on the walls and the pillars that were still standing was _very _familiar...

"I can't believe we found this place so easily," Duke marveled.

"We _did_ think some Ban-Ile would have hidden a Sennen Item-thingy here," Mokuba pointed out, "And it was all that magic from three Sennen Item-thingys blasting each other that we even ended up here in the first place..."

The three of them searched the buildings, but to their disappointment, these old ruins were long-abandoned. On top of that, there was no sign that anything remotely like a Sennen Item had ever been here in the first place. It made sense, Duke pointed out reluctantly. Having a couple of these places scattered around would ensure that if the demons found one and wiped it out, the others could remain undetected. The odds of this one place being the secret hiding location of a Sennen Item were rather low.

--

A little over a day after their arrival in the Ban-Ile ruins, Yuugi decided to poke around one of the ruined buildings. There was nothing else to do; Mokuba was hanging around the building they had decided to rest in, and Duke was off scouting around.

Today, Yuugi decided to investigate a room that was mostly blocked off. Part of the room above this room had collapsed for some reason, and a large pile of rubble blocked entrance to most things. Duke had looked inside through the hole in the blockage and seen nothing that might conceal a Sennen Item inside, but he was too tall to actually get inside the room and look around.

Since he had nothing better to do - and since sitting around wondering what fate had befallen Kikki wasn't too appealing, out here in this rainforest full of predators - Yuugi wormed his way in and took a look around. This room wasn't very impressive, as rooms went. The floor was covered in sprouting plants, as was the floor in every other room that he, Duke, and Mokuba had just looked through. Otherwise, this room was completely bare...

Yuugi had to correct himself; the room was bare save for the plants _and_ that big, round stone disk over in the corner. If he hadn't gotten into the room, Yuugi realized after a moment, he would never have been able to see that stone disk. More importantly, upon closer inspection the disk proved to be inscribed with many strange pictures and symbols - pictures and symbols not used by Ban-Ile, but which were unmistakably the work of humans! Surrounded by the Ban-Ile ruins, the contrast was painfully obvious.

Yuugi hurried to find Mokuba. He would have preferred to talk to Duke about this discovery, since Duke was Ban-Ile and could understand sign language, but Duke wouldn't be able to get in the room to see the disk. And even if Duke could have managed somehow, the Ban-Ile was off scouting for some sign of civilization at the moment and there was no way to reach him anyway.

Even while unable to understand him, Mokuba had followed him to the room anyway. Faced with the disk, Mokuba immediately came to the same conclusion Yuugi had.

"And maybe," Mokuba speculated, "This thing _was_ inside a temple or something, and then the Ban-Ile moved it here instead because the demons were about to grab it. It really doesn't look like it belongs here, you know?"

Yuugi nodded - this had occurred to him as well. Despite knowing Mokuba wouldn't understand him, Yuugi tried signing an idea at him. (**Would your key open it**)

"Oh, so you want to see if my Ankt Item-thingy can open this stone disk thing?"

Yuugi could only blink and stare. What? Since _when_...

(**You understand this now**) Yuugi signed at Mokuba, startled.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Mokuba explained how he had seen the signs for 'opening with key', and from that Mokuba had figured out what Yuugi was asking him.

"I'd understand a lot better if someone just sat down with me and taught me how to use it," Mokuba admitted, "But it's not like my brother is the only language genius in our family! I've been watching you sign and trying to figure out what you've been saying since the moment I met you and Jonouchi at the museum; it'd be pathetic if I couldn't hold a halfway decent conversation with you by the end of all this!"

That settled, Mokuba gestured toward the stone disk.

"But using the key thing I got from that Mori guy, I think it's a good idea."

Mokuba pulled out the Sennen Ankt and poked at the stone disk with it. At first, nothing happened. Mokuba tried poking in right in the middle, then closer to the edges, trying to figure out how to open the thing. It was when Mokuba tried the actual edge of the disk that there was some sign of success; there was one spot where the Ankt started to sink into the solid stone.

"C'mon," Mokuba grumbled as he tried to make the Ankt work, "If you're a magic key, then do some magic already..."

Moments later, the Ankt started glowing in Mokuba's hand. It sank further into the stone, and Mokuba tried turning it as if it were a more conventional key. It slipped right out again, but now there was something else wrapped around it. After they untangled the Ankt, Yuugi and Mokuba discovered that they had found a golden necklace The only thing decorating that necklace was a familiar-looking stylized eye.

For a moment, Mokuba and Yuugi could only gape at their find; neither of them had been completely convinced that there really was another Sennen Item just lying in here and waiting for them. Once the moment passed, they ran to find Duke.

Duke was very impressed with their discovery, telling them so flat-out just as soon as he stopped slapping himself for not thinking of getting inside that one room for a better look in the first place.

"If I'm not mistaken,' Duke said, holding the necklace up and examining it carefully, "This Item is named the Sennen Torque. The human sorcerer responsible for this Item was a Seer, and gave the Sennen Tauk the ability to see the future as well, actually. It's a good thing we found it before the demons did - if they knew how to unlock the Sennen Torque's powers, we'd _never_ be able to get any of the other Items past them."

"So, does that mean that the Ban-Ile who were here before used this to see the future, saw that we'd be coming to find this thing, and that's why they left it here so we could find it? ...That kind of makes my brain hurt," Mokuba said.

Duke only shrugged. Once the three of them finished with marveling over their unexpected good fortune and pondering the painful mysteries of being able to see into the future, Duke handed the Torque over to Yuugi.

"We should only carry one each, especially now that we know for certain that there are demons after us, actually," Duke pointed out, "If the worse happens and one of our group is caught, at least we'll only be forfeiting one Item instead of all of them."

Yuugi accepted the Torque. He made certain to put it into a different pocket from Yami's feather and pendant.

For a fleeting moment, Yuugi wished that they had appeared where Yami had been taken, instead of by the hiding place of a Sennen Item. He shook the idea away in an instant. Even if they _had_ appeared there, what help would that be for Yami, appearing right in the middle of a nest of demons? None, that was what. They needed the Sennen Items if they were going to be of any help to the poor captured Ban-Ile anyway...

"...I hope those demons didn't get my brother or Jonouchi," Mokuba mentioned, looking depressed, "Isn't there _any_ way we can get back to civilization? We need to find them! Fast!"

"Well, _actually_..."

Yuugi and Mokuba blinked at Duke when he trailed off without finishing. The Ban-Ile retracted his wings, which was even more confusing; since the only ones in this remote wilderness were his friends, Duke had seen no need to try and keep up appearances.

"Ah, here they come now," Duke finished, nodding off into the distance.

The direction Duke was indicating had a strip of the jungle that was slightly less densely foliated. The three of them had speculated over the possibility of it being a road that had once connected these ruins to someplace else, but none of them had felt up to trying it without knowing where it actually lead. Duke had been investigating that today, as a matter of fact...and the low roar of several engines heading their way showed exactly what he had found.

--

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


	21. We were mistaken in our path

And here's another update!

...

Yeah, that's all I got. Tch!

--

Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Yu-Gi-Oh

Claimer: Everything in this fic that was not made up by someone else belongs to the authoress! No stealing!

--

* * *

--

--

--

It was probably a miracle, or at least would make a really good story: the jeeps that forced their way through the dense plants on the old road and pulled up in front of the ruins were full of people. It was a good-sized expedition, determined to investigate the extensive ruins, and the many people involved were all very surprised to find a small group of plane-wreck survivors hanging around in such a remote place.

Of course, the expedition was more than happy to help the poor kids out; a jeep, helicopter, and plane ride later, Duke, Mokuba, and Yuugi were back in the depths of comfortable civilization. The instant Mokuba found himself within arm's-reach of the Internet, he started searching frantically, eager to discover any mention of his older brother's whereabouts.

The results came back extremely fast; apparently, wherever he had ended up, Kaiba had started an equally frantic search for Mokuba the second _he_ got within arm's-reach of the Internet himself. It was a relatively short trip before the two halves of their group reunited - in a Mexican hospital.

The hospital wasn't exactly state-of-the-art, but it was more than adequate. Jonouchi (and Kikki, much to Yuugi's surprise and relief) greeted the three of them at the door, before leading them to one of the hospital rooms. In the bed in that room lay Kaiba...looking only _slightly_ under the weather.

Kaiba, as it turned out, had been as sick as the proverbial dog ever since the Items on the jumbo jet had blasted them to various parts of the world. Since the doctors at the hospital hadn't been able to diagnose anything wrong with him, and the only computers with fast enough Internet access in the area were in the hospital, Kaiba had grudgingly agreed to stay put.

Now that he had Mokuba back, however, nothing was going to keep Kaiba put now. He used the computer to arrange for the smaller private jet they had originally been using to be flown over from storage in Sydney. It was an unfortunate delay, but the jumbo jet, they were assured, was now nothing more than expensive metal toothpicks floating in the Pacific.

"...Hey, does anyone know what happened to those demons after the explosion?" Jonouchi wondered.

They had laid out the three Sennen Items on a table - Kaiba's hospital room was serving as a de-facto conference room for them - and had been warily speculating on how the remaining Items might be hidden, when Jonouchi brought this up.

"They must have been blasted to someplace, just like we were," Mokuba pointed out, "Unless they all burned up when the plane exploded...wait, that would mean that the demons don't have those freaky scales anymore! That Item might have sunk straight to the bottom of the ocean!"

There was a pause while they thought about this idea. Pleased and relieved looks were breaking out on Jonouchi and Mokuba's faces when Yuugi reluctantly held out his hands.

(**Not good. We need all seven here. Not in ocean**) Yuugi signed.

Mokuba - who they had finally managed to sit down and start teaching sign language to - blinked at the signs owlishly for a moment, before rolling his eyes and groaning.

"Even if that's bad, at least we blew up those demons, right?" Mokuba said, trying to keep the vaguely more upbeat mood going.

Duke shook his head at this thought, putting an end to it.

"I seriously doubt they were all killed so easily, actually. They didn't seem to end up any closer to us, and this was a fortuitous turn of events in getting them off our trail...but even _if_ the Sennen Scales did sink into the ocean, that wouldn't stop their kind from getting it back. Demons swim very well in deep water, actually."

Expression fully soured now, Jonouchi grumbled something inaudible to himself and set to poking at the Sennen Eye, rolling it back and forth along the table with his fingertip.

"And be careful with that!" Duke snapped, "The _last_ thing we need is for one of these Items to get damaged!"

"I'm not gonna break it! Besides, with all the power these things have, I bet it could take being kicked around a lot harder than _this_," Jonouchi retorted.

There was a momentary pause.

"...So, what does this thing do again?"

"I think it reads people's minds," Mokuba said, "Right?"

Duke nodded.

"The Eye reads the hearts and minds of others, penetrating deception. The Ankt unlocks souls and opens paths to different levels of reality. The Torque watches the future and past," Duke said, indicating each Sennen Item in turn, "...Oh, and they also allow their bearers to do various things to other people's souls, all of which are unpleasant. All the Sennen Items can do that much, actually."

"...Was that what that scary demon lady was going to do to us?" Jonouchi wondered.

Duke nodded, rubbing the almost healed bruising on his neck in memory.

"What else do the Scales do? Do you know, Duke?" Mokuba asked, curious despite himself.

"Let me see...if I remember correctly, they were forged by an Arbitrator, who gave them 'Power to weigh hearts and punish foul deceit', whatever that means. An Arbitrator is a kind of judge," Duke added, seeing the nonplussed looks he was getting.

(**All the makers gave their same power to their Items**) Yuugi asked.

"Yes, actually. Each of the sorcerers had their own unique power, and were the most powerful humans of the time."

"_Weird_," Jonouchi said, "Man, these are so strange, I wonder if the ones we ain't seen yet could even top them."

"Oh, they do, actually," Duke was quick to point out, "I don't know much about the seventh Item - it's the most powerful but also the most mysterious, since so little is known about it, actually. The other two Items have fairly straightforward abilities, considering who forged them."

(**Who made them**) Yuugi signed.

They were all starting to get interested by this point; even if their group _had_ been more-or-less dedicatedly searching for these Items, none of them knew anything at all about them aside from Duke.

"One of the other two Items was forged by a powerful warrior who was undefeated in battle," Duke explained, "That Item is a powerful weapon. The other Item was forged by a thief."

"A thief? ...You sure?"

"I was confused when I heard this the first time myself, actually," Duke agreed, "But he really was a thief, and a deviously cunning one as well. It's said that there was no precious object in the world that could be hidden from him when he sought it."

Duke hesitated, blinking.

"...I just said he could find anything he looked for, didn't I?"

"You sure did," Jonouchi said, grinning and rubbing his hands together, "Just think - if we had had _that_ Item from the beginning, we would have gotten them_ all_ by now! We just gotta get this thief's Item next!"

"That's not going to be easy," Duke sighed, "The thief's Item is hidden better than any other Item. Not even the Ban-Ile who guard it know where it is, actually. The thief hid his Item himself just before he died, and no one's found it since. From what I've heard, that _Deyadi_ charged to locate and guard the Item only managed to narrow the possible location down to a specific continent..."

"Well...crap," Jonouchi groaned.

"It figures," Mokuba pointed out unhappily, "This thief guy knew better than anyone about how important things could get stolen, I bet. So what do we do now? Look for the other two Items instead?"

(**Maybe if we try to think like a thief we can figure out where he hid that Item**) Yuugi pointed out, (**It worked for thinking like a Ban-Ile**)

"I suppose it couldn't hurt..." Duke slowly agreed.

"Okay, so which continent did you say they narrowed it down to?" Mokuba asked, "Too bad we don't still have that atlas handy..."

"The atlas wouldn't have been much help, actually," Duke said, "If I remember right, the hiding place was narrowed down to the Eurasian continent, but no one was able to figure out whether it was hidden in the Asian side or the European side, so it couldn't be narrowed down any further."

"...Well..._crap_," Jonouchi groaned.

There was a pause that stretched out into minutes. The four of them were despairing over finding this Item, especially since they really did need all seven. The fact that no one, not even the Ban-Ile who were supposed to be guarding it, knew where the Item was was incredibly depressing. Even if they skipped it for now, they'd still need to find it later, but if it was nowhere to be found...

Over in the hospital bed, Kaiba, who had been valiantly attempting to ignore everyone else in the room, snorted in disgust.

"I cannot believe how _gullible_ you people are," Kaiba announced, "The answer is so obvious that even the _imbecile_ there should have figured it out by now."

Jonouchi growled. Being stuck in the wilderness with Kaiba for an extended period had done nothing for their mutual enmity.

"Oh yeah? And what's this answer you got there, y'smug bastard?"

Kaiba smirked nastily back at Jonouchi before making his reply. "If you're too unintelligent to figure it out, far be it for _me_ to try and assist that mass of solid bone you call a brain, imbecile."

"Would it be possible for you to be at all _helpful_, Kaiba?" Duke asked, breaking into the argument before it could get any further along.

Kaiba threw a glance Jonouchi's way - the blond was visibly restraining himself from going over to Kaiba's hospital bed and giving the brunette a serious beating - before deciding that he'd done enough baiting for the time being.

"Hn. The answer is obvious - if this person was as masterful of a strategist as you've claimed," Kaiba said, "Then he would have hidden this Item you're looking for it the one place no one would ever consider a good hiding spot. Therefore this Item you're after is in the one place where no one would consider looking."

"Where would that be, though? I can think of lots of places I wouldn't hide something this important, and none of them are very good," Mokuba asked his brother.

Perhaps due to the sole fact that it was his younger brother asking the question, Kaiba decided to elaborate and expand on his answer.

"Think about it. What place is both the most famous _and_ the most accessible historical site, known around the world, and visited regularly by tourists most if not every day of the year?"

The other four thought about it. After a moment, Yuugi raised his hands.

(**I can think of one place for Asia and one place for Europe**) Yuugi signed.

Kaiba nodded agreement, looking vaguely pleased that someone managed to figure it out besides himself.

"It will be very simple to check them both out," Kaiba continued, "We'll start with the nearest one."

"Wait, hold on. _Where_ are we going now?" Jonouchi blinked.

"Got me," Duke shrugged.

"...I don't get it either," Mokuba sighed, "Can you just tell us the answer?"

"Fine," Kaiba said, "We're going to Stonehenge. If that doesn't pan out, our next stop is the Great Wall of China."

There was a moment's silence after Kaiba made this pronouncement. Then Jonouchi jumped to his feet, sending his chair skidding backwards across the floor.

"_Stonehenge_? You stole my idea, Kaiba!" Jonouchi yelled, "I wanted to go to Stonehenge since when we couldn't even figure out where to go to!"

"And that's why they call it _dumb luck_, imbecile."

Seething, Jonouchi stepped towards Kaiba's bed, itching for a fight. A moment later, having belatedly remembered that Kaiba was still in that bed, therefore making him unable to fight back, Jonouchi found himself with nothing to do but snarl at his would-be opponent, before storming out. Jonouchi's sense of honor wouldn't let him get away with trying to beat up someone in a hospital bed, something that Kaiba had known well in advance, judging from the size of his smirk.

--

"First we go places that are too damn cold, and now its someplace too bright and hot! Can somebody remind me why the hell we're doing this!"

"It's your own fault, Jonouchi!" Mokuba yelled back, none too happy himself, "If you hadn't started complaining about our travel plans, those guys wouldn't have been able to talk us into this stupid tour in the first place!"

((It all beaking crap-dirt flock to me,)) Kikki said, fluttering around Yuugi's head and providing a very small (and welcome) breeze.

Jonouchi, infuriated and stressed from dealing with Kaiba for extended periods of time on his own, had been very loudly airing choice remarks about the billionaire for a few hours after storming out of the hospital. He'd stretched his multilingual skills to the limits by doing so, but the hospital staff had determined from what few snatches they'd understood (none of them knew any Japanese, but they were all almost fluent in English) that Mr. Kaiba and his group were on some sort of world tour of famous ruins and archeological sites.

Kaiba's hospital stay thus far was making the staff very, _very_ rich, and so they decided that this would be a very good way to make even more money. Their hospital could use some renovations and more state-of-the-art equipment, after all...

And so, just as Kaiba was checking himself out of the hospital, their group had been approached with an offer of a tour of one of Mexico's most wonderful ancient ruins. Kaiba flat-out refused, but the would-be tour guides were determined.

Somehow, they'd prevailed. And so now Kaiba, Mokuba, Jonouchi, Duke, Yuugi, and Kikki were all overheated and unhappy as they made their way up the huge staircase of an enormous step pyramid. Clearly, the 'Temple of the Sun' had been named so because when it got around noon, it was as baking and unpleasant as being on the sun's surface would have been.

If not for the blistering heat, it might have been a very enjoyable visit; the Temple of the Sun was an enormous step pyramid that nearly put Egypt's pyramids to shame. Unfortunately, all any of their group could think about was getting to the top level of the pyramid, since their guide had assured them that there were some small, shaded rooms full of interesting carved works at the top. The fact that these rooms would be guaranteed cool and dim was most certainly part of their enthusiasm.

Even _Duke_ was looking forward to escaping the worst of the heat, despite how it meant that he'd be crowding into a tiny little confined space with several other people.

Once situated inside one of the rooms, their guide began explaining the meanings behind all of the carvings and explaining the various rituals conducted at the Temple of the Sun in the past. Seto waited until the others were fully engrossed in learning all the details behind the various human sacrifices before slipping off.

There was another, larger room connected to the one where the guide had lead them. Concealed shafts in the ceiling, doubtless put in place to allow smoke from torches to escape without choking the room's occupants, let in more than enough light to see by. Most importantly, as far as Seto was concerned, this room did not contain the several irritating people he and Mokuba seemed to be stuck with.

Naturally, since this was a pleasant moment, it was ruined almost immediately. At least Seto found some satisfaction in the fact that it was Duke who was bothering him now and not that fool Jonouchi.

The Ban-Ile refused to take the hint and leave him alone, no matter how fiercely Seto glared, but Duke seemed more interested in the carvings in the wall than anything, and so Seto managed to tolerate his presence. Finding a comfortable-looking spot of wall, Seto leaned back against it, planning on enjoying the peace and quiet as long as possible before the other irritants inflicted themselves upon him once again.

At least, that was Seto's plan. Unfortunately, that was not to be. The second Seto's back came in contact with his chosen bit of wall, he recoiled as something like an electric shock jolted through him. Whirling in disbelief and anger - was the universe conspiring against him today? - Seto poked at the offending wall section, _daring_ it to try shocking him again.

Not only was he shocked every time he got too close, Seto discovered, the shocks seemed to increase in intensity with every try: the wall was attempting to discourage him, it seemed. By the time that Seto determined how much of the wall was going to shock him - a relatively narrow strip, set just below eyelevel - his hand was tingling and half-numb.

Then Seto realized that Duke was standing almost directly behind him, watching this with a fascinated look on his face. Seto watched as Duke poked the section of wall Seto had narrowed down as the source of the shocks, and felt almost amused to see the Ban-Ile yank his hand right back, as if he'd burnt his fingers.

"Well that was unexpected," Duke remarked, "I wonder..."

With a hesitant glance around to make certain that no one was spying on them, Duke reached into a pocket. Seto decided to settle back and watch as the Ban-Ile pulled out one of the Sennen Items their group had collected - the 'Sennen Eye', if Seto recalled the name correctly - which he did.

Duke held the golden bulb up to one of his own eyes, the raised design pointed towards the strip of wall that was the source of the shock. The Item seemed to flash and shimmer in some unseen light, before Duke put it back with a smile on his face.

"Congratulations, Kaiba," Duke said next, "You've discovered one of the Sennen Items."

"_Wonderful_," Seto replied, making certain to avoid hiding any hint of his distaste, "I suppose this means you'll be insisting that I carry it?"

Duke nodded, still beaming away at him. Seto felt his distaste twist into disgust. He did not want to be involved like this, but since none of the other idiots were around, it seemed like he would have to suffer after all.

Besides, Seto recalled after another moment's thought, if he _didn't_ do it, that only left the imbecile available for this duty. And since these artifacts seemed to be somewhat important, it was probably for the best that he make certain the imbecile didn't screw the job up. This only partially mollified him, and so Seto turned to the other walls, determinedly ignoring Duke and the presence of a Sennen Item until he really had to carry the thing.

"Hey, there you are!"

Seto didn't even bat an eye as Mokuba walked in.

"Our guide wants to go back down now! He said that it'll be a lot cooler now that the sun's starting to go down. ...What are you two doing in here, anyway?"

"Your brother," Duke announced before Seto could get a word in, "Just found us another Sennen Item, actually."

"He did? That's awesome! Where is it? What's it look like? Does it have a cool power?"

As Duke worked to fend off Mokuba's eager barrage of questions, Seto turned his attention back to the walls. Casually looking them over, he was vaguely interested in that they seemed to depict some kind of battle. Strange figures on either side were clearly struggling for dominance, and the strangest-looking ones were shown in the air above the others, just underneath a carving of some kind of unusual raised disk...

"Oh no! We were too late!"

Duke's cry of dismay drew Seto's attention back over in a snap. Over where that annoying section of wall had been, there was now a small niche in the wall. From where Seto was standing, he could see how the inside of the concealed hold held a shelf, clearly shaped to hold something long and narrow - like a knife, or perhaps a short stick. It was also plainly obvious that their group had not been the first ones here, as the holder was very obviously empty.

"Now those demons have _two_ Items? This is so not fair!" Mokuba groaned.

Huh. His brother still expected the world to be _fair?_ However, Duke was taking a closer look at the holder, and suddenly sighed in what was obviously relief.

"And now this is a _good _thing?" Mokuba protested, staring at Duke.

"Better than it could have been, actually," Duke explained, "This Item might be gone, but it wasn't taken by any demon. These marks, carved into the stone here - you see them? They were left by another Ban-Ile, and _that_ was who took this Item away!"

"Oh," Mokuba said, "Wow. So, what does it say?"

Idle curiosity rising in him, Seto took a glance inside the niche for himself.

--

"It says '_To whoever: Fools who leave such weapons unused in the dark have no right to keep them._' There's nothing to indicate who left this message..."

"Back to square one on this Item, then," Mokuba sighed, "Well, at least it proved that my brother is an expert Sennen Item-finder! ...Huh? Where'd he go?"

Duke blinked and turned. Sure enough, Kaiba was long gone. He'd been standing just next to them just a moment ago, too... Duke shrugged, and turned to re-sealing the niche. Kaiba had probably deduced that he no longer had to perform Sennen Item-carrying duty and had seized the opportunity to take off while he could.

Duke wouldn't have put it past him, actually.

--

* * *

_The review button's not just there for decoration..._


End file.
